A Spike Lee Joint...
When the Levees Broke is currently making its way through the 17 HBO channels on my television. I watched the first two hours of the four-hour documentary last night, and was (and am) devastated (again) by Katrina.
But not really. I'm not really devastated. I'm not really affected by the aftershock of the storm or the govenment's failure to respond as "we" should've. I'm not really blown away to see new images and hear new testimonials and revisit the emotions I almost felt almost a year ago.
I have no idea. And niether do you. We had and have and will never have an understanding of what really happened (and didn't happen) in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast last year.
God willing.
More than anything, Spike Lee's new joint pissed me off. Not because of what people say or feel or confess or blame. But because it's true. It's real. It's not agitated or inspired or scripted or made up or embellished.
It may not be a "truth" that "Bush just don't give a f*$&! about black folks and he couldn't care less about helping nobody but those who can help him..."
But it is true. On a human level... to all those thousands of people who sat hungry, thirsty, dead and dying for days and days without "our" help... or hope... it's as true as any statement I've heard in a long, long time.
Watch the rest of this documentary tonight. See for yourself the things we'll never really see. If you can't (or don't) get HBO, I'm sure you can get more information here.
posted by iv @ 11:28 AM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
I and my wife are natives of NOLA. White. 57 and 53. We moved in 1984, and live in Florida today, but our hearts have remained in NOLA. My parents are dead. My wife's dad died two weeks before Katrina; that was our last "normal" visit home. Her mom's home in St. Bernard Parish was drowned in 10 feet of water for weeks, then covered by a carpet of putrid black mold. My step mother's house in St. Bernard was moved off its foundations by floodwaters from the hurricane. Neither woman is able to afford to rebuild; homeowners insurance paid nothing. Flood paid only a small percentage. So they are among the displaced. Spike Lee focused on the very real plight of the Black NOLA community. The white middle class and fixed income community has been hit every bit as hard. It is incredibly painful to watch this beloved home city of ours die a day and a person at a time. And to feel absolutely helpless to make a difference.
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