I’m just getting into act 3…I’ve been trying to figure out how to relay the significance of seeing this to people who might be inclined to skip it. Maybe its the military experience, but for me, as an American, this is the defining event of my generation thus far. The reality of chaos and the effect it has on the lives of human beings who (for their entire lives) were conditioned up to that point, familiar reality consisted of something like law and order, help when you needed it, the comfort of family…so the experience becomes a part of us, that’s how I see it. When soldiers and marines die at war, it’s the community that surrounds that person who feels it, while the rest of the nation is upset their team lost the night before.
That’s how America reacted to Katrina and its aftermath. It was a TV show.
Answers or plans haven’t materialized…you see, it’s the “free market” that needs to sort this mess out. So when the next disaster hits, every city in the nation refers to that and decides to close their doors. You’ll hear, “this is a temporary situation, we appreciate your help!” -Damn you sleep good that night, and the next, so on- What happens a year later? Oh, it’s showbiz government saying this and that, patting itself on the back for what a great job its done.
Freedom medals all around…
A forum I post on has had many rememberances of katrina..and some of the rightwingers are actually bitching that they are tired of hearing about NOLA and the Gulf..so I guess what you say is true..its just a tv show for those without compassion or understanding of the magnitude of this tragedy.
All I can say is..everyone needs to hope and pray they never experience something of this scope..because you now know you can’t depend on your government to help you out in the long haul..or rescue you either.
That hopefully won’t be the case forever. If Bill Clinton was President, that wouldn’t have happened. For some reason we can deploy troops to go kill people…helicopters, trucks, food, water, gear…to anywhere in the world in under 24 hours, yet these people were starving, dehydrated, children without formula, milk…
The righties are trying to go with the theory of low expectations, but once we do that, we’re fucked! The truth is, AMERICA CAN HANDLE SOMETHING LIKE THIS…as long as the political will is there to make the call.
I love how righties spend so much time riping the governor and mayor apart – – – as if either one of them could have deployed the military to save those people. The only entity that could have saved them was the federal government, and unfortunately, we elected leaders who couldn’t care less about life or death.
That is, unless it’s an embryo or a fetus…then they’ll throw down the gauntlet. Once you’re born though, you’re on your own…and if you’re a minority…
Dusty – crosspost this over there and see what it stirs up. See if any of them want to go toe to toe w/ Mr. Swearengen
because you now know you can’t depend on your government to help you out in the long haul..or rescue you either.
As long as Democrats are the Mayor and Governor, that is.
If Bill Clinton was President, that wouldn’t have happened.
If Bill Clinton were President we would probably be getting a BJ at the time and not know anything about it. Look, the Mayor and the Governor are responsible for 90% of the aftermath and the Democrats of the 60s and 70s are responsible for not shoring up the levee system.
Why didn’t Bill Clinton shore up the levee system in the eight years he was President? I saw FEMA’s Brown on the weather channel days before the hurricane hit talking about all the stuff that was down there waiting to be used by the Governor. This was a State and local failure of the highest order.
I love how righties spend so much time riping the governor and mayor apart
Well, it was completely their fault. No evacuation, all those buses sitting in parking lots, not telling anyone where the refugees were going.
as if either one of them could have deployed the military to save those people.
I fail to see the value of an M-1 tank or an Apache gunship in rescue missions. Now all those boats and portable buildings that FEMA provided, that’s a different thing all together.
As for deploying people, hello, Louisiana National Guard. State police, Sheriff, DOT. The Coast Guard was out there too. Democrats were the big failures in this tragedy and instead of coming clean and admitting to their mistakes they come out and attack Republicans. Pathetic!!
Anyone got that video of Bush strumming on the guitar while New Orleans flooded?
As for NO. Nobody’s fault. Just nature. Typical that Americans will argue over who was responsible for what amounted to a rather small natural disaster (if you compare it to other nation’s disasters).
The best thing for New Orleans (in my humble opinion) is for them to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and kick butt rebuilding the city themselves. If private investment isn’t able to resurrect the city then I think it’s safe to say that the city shouldn’t be resurrected. I do believe the free market is better at assessing risk than our federal government.
What can either do without $$?
What’s the national guard for anyway? They used to be deployed quickly to situations like this, now they’re catching fragments in Iraq, building fences in Texas, Arizona…
Once the national guard got down there, a plan was put into action…the military doesn’t fuck around. Watching the portion of the documentary when the NG showed up made me VERY proud…the general was all business, pushed the mayor and anyone else about to get in his way aside and TOOK CHARGE!
Wish we had a President that could do something like that – – – 9/11 had him sitting on his ass just like after Katrina hit. The guy’s got kool-aid running through his veins! All talk, no action, no results.
Him and Cheney are good at sending others into battle, droping bombs…
You’re RIGHT!!! The Army Corps of Engineers is a J-O-K-E!!!
Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan…not an engineer among them, just 2 actors (clinton/reagan) and 3 politicians – – –
I’m proud to be studying to be an engineer…it’s a job that used to envoke pride in America…now we’ve got the Big Dig, the leavies, space shuttles burning up on reentry. The country has gone too political and needs to get back into science and BEING THE BEST at these things again. All politicians in DC want to do is scare the shit out of us about shit on the other side of the world, while the inside of this country crumbles.
So the Army doesn’t have hellicopters, trucks, water, MREs, medical supplies…I seem to remember all of those things when I was in. Maybe too many people view the military as nothing but shells and things to load them into. Support is a large part of it as well Right…you knew that already, but in the above paragraph you pretend not to.
They come out attacking the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! A pastime of Republicans whenever they’re not running it!
The state national guard troops were in Iraq.
National guard troops from non border states are building fences, so they can fill sandbags and hand out MREs in NO as well.