Last week Justin talked about Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke. I have finally gotten a chance to see the film over the weekend. I think the overwhelming cry from the victims was not “Oh, I should have gotten out or have been better prepared.” It was, “the government failed us.” Although having personal responsibility is a goal for us all, there is no doubt that the government has vital roles that it failed to perform during this catastrophe. It was government failure that designed faulty levees and misguided people about there effectiveness. It was government failure that prevented people from getting trailers in an efficient manner. It was government failure that told families their loved ones where not inside homes when indeed they were. And among the many local government failure was one that guided a nearby parish to prevent New Orleans citizens from fleeing to their parish using armed police.
It is our duty to continue to complain about these government failure until it is held accountable or, at the very least, until changes have been made to the system to prevent the same failures. The levees, although better than before, are still not adequate. Large amounts of debris can still be found in many parts of New Orleans. Power is still not available to many as well. Thousands of people would still be alive if the government had been held accountable after hurricane Betsy or if people would not stop making their screams heard.
Black people were not responsible for this devastation. However, if another tragedy such as this happens again, we should blame ourselves. We should blame ourselves for not complaining enough to our elected officials, being loud enough, and holding our “leaders’” feet to the fire to do their jobs in the local governments and the federal government. And most importantly we should blame ourselves if we ever forget Katrina.
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