Katrina – A Spike Lee Joint

I was cruising the channels late Saturday afternoon and stumbled across the airing of the movie ‘When The Levees Broke – A Requiem in Four Parts’, a docudrama directed by Spike Lee. The movie recounts the events leading up to and following the disastrous landfall of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

I have always been a big fan of Spike Lee. I have seen all of his movies, and generally find them both disturbing and thought provoking. I also know that his movies are presented from a viewpoint that I have absolutely no context for ( being that I am quite white ), and as a result I have a tendency to be dismissive when it gets to various points in the movie where black people suffer at the hands of white people. I generally will mutter something like “It’s not like you don’t have a say in how your life turns out. Do something different if you don’t like it!” I realize this is arrogant, and a character flaw, but it happens. I have lived a life of extreme privilege, as I am now realizing day by day, and am humbled by it.

After watching the horror of Katrina unfold in grave detail some four years ago, I had two primary reactions:

1. The government was looked to as the savior in this disaster by many in New Orleans, and it failed miserably in that role. From Mayor Nagin issuing a mandatory evacuation only the day before and not providing any means for getting people out that had no transportation, to George Bush committing to providing “all the help that would be required” and completely bonking, the government made commitments that it failed to keep. As several in the film said, we had help on the ground in Indonesia faster than we did in New Orleans. If it is your position that the government belongs in the middle of mitigating a disaster like this, then it is inexcusable what happened in New Orleans. I was also stunned as I watched people recount trying to leave New Orleans on foot and being turned back by police in neighboring cities.
2. I, as someone who lives in the US, failed in my role as someone who could help those in desperate need. From my cushy home here in North Carolina, I observed the devastation and chose to believe that it was “not as bad as it looked” on TV. I had severe myopia, and did very little, if anything, to help out. It is not necessarily guilt ( as it is four years later, and there is nothing I can do about it now ), but rather it is one of resolve. I will pay more attention next time, and get involved.

I don’t think it is the government’s responsibility to be directly involved in this kind of disaster relief. Prior to the 1900’s, you would struggle to find the government’s involvement in any of our nation’s largest cleanup efforts. Even the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco was cleaned up primarily by the residents of San Francisco. We, as a nation, should do a better job of taking care of our own. The government may fly the planes in, but we should provide the water, the food, the workers, the capital etc. to help rebuild.

We are disillusioned when we put our faith in a large bureaucracy that fails to deliver on it’s promises time and time again. ( By the way, don’t think that it will be any better with the promises of a health care panacea ). I would like to think that at some point we may learn that we would be so much better off if we gave our government the collective finger and leaned on each other a bit more. Maybe I am hopelessly naive.

Lastly, should we consider perhaps not rebuilding a city that is below sea level and is destined to have this kind of destruction again? From Hurricane Betsy in 1965 to Katrina 40 years later, perhaps it’s time to think about people finding another place to live.