HURRICANE KATRINA- archive of links Click the picture:
Posted on 08/20/2006 8:10:17 AM PDT by WestTexasWend
Tears marked his 70-year-old cheeks as Arthur Brown, leaning on a walking stick, walked from the film that sought to tell his story. "I think it's a great movie," said Brown, on Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.
"I'm mad," he said. "We lost everything. I've worked all my life - minimum-wage jobs - and raised eight children. Now I've got nothing. My wife is 65. What little savings we had is gone. FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] hasn't been any help. It's just not right."
Brown was among thousands of survivors of Hurricane Katrina at the world premiere of the four-hour film at the New Orleans Arena on Wednesday night.
One was Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, whose profane and sometimes profound commentary is a highlight of the film. "This was unnecessary," she said of the tragedy. "I hope everyone watches [the movie] and learns from it."
The documentary will be shown in two-hour slots on the American cable network HBO tonight and tomorrow. It will air the entire four hours on August 29, the first anniversary of the disaster.
Lee said his work was aimed at the forgetfulness of a nation. "People are still in dire straits," he said. "We want to put the focus back here."
Lee has chronicled America's racial divisions since his 1989 film Do the Right Thing. But it's more people in poverty than people of colour whose suffering is depicted in When the Levees Broke. Corpses with all shades of skin are shown in the fetid floodwaters.
The Government is the villain in Lee's lens, and the audience of about 8000 booed when President George Bush and Michael Brown, the former director of FEMA, were on screen. Chuckles and jeers erupted at three rapidly repeated shots of Bush saying "Brownie, you did a heck of a job."
While the film shows the raw power of the storm, it blames much of the tragedy on the failure of man-made levees and a negligent government response.
"What happened here was a criminal act, " Lee said.
A review in New Orleans' Times-Picayune criticised the film for focusing on the African-American experience and giving short shrift to white folks.
Lee said any reviewer who didn't see white faces must have slept through the film. Indeed, from a weeping disc jockey to an angry homeowner who said "Go f--- yourself, Mr Cheney" when waylaid by a vice-presidential photo op, white people in the film drew applause from the mostly black viewers.
If Clinton was in the White House, Lee and his ilk would have been praising him to the gills for his response.
They have put WAY too much emotion and time, effort etc into their hatred of George W. Bush and his administration. Just over 2 years from now when they are all gone from D.C., what will they do then? It's a foolish approach, very short-sighted.
And the failure of the levees is his fault....Right, they've been there for decades and the corrupt local government overlooked them, diverted funds meant to maintain them. The slow response was all federal? Spike Lee is as much of a liar as Michael Moore. But...He will probably will ALL the awards for this "documentary".
---"I'm mad," he said. "We lost everything. I've worked all my life - minimum-wage jobs - and raised eight children. Now I've got nothing. My wife is 65. What little savings we had is gone. FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] hasn't been any help. It's just not right."---
So, he's out on the street with no place to live and nothing to eat?
HURRICANE KATRINA- archive of links Click the picture:
What happened was a state where blacks were treated like cattle. Line up, dead or alive, vote Dem. and get handouts. Think of yourself as victims. God forbid your kids go to a decent school and get a chance to make something of themselves. God forbid you show initiative. Blacks were dems' house slaves, and when Katrina hit, they didn't know what to do. This is the problem Spike Lee and others like him should address. Instead, they're more concerned with lining their own pockets.
When generations are raised on the idea that the Gov't is the answer, what do you expect.
Not in a Louisiana Puke minute!
Look at the difference in federal response between Alabama and Louisiana. The Democrat governor of New Orleans refused to sign over the Louisiana national guard to federal command for distribution of aid and medical assistance.And then she immediately proceeded to use the disaster as political fodder against the President, in total disregard for the people who elected her? Louisiana got just what it deserved, hell, they voted for her. Maybe they might think things through and elect a governor next time who has a sense of responsibility and morality.
Notice that Alabama , with a Republican governor , followed the normal FEMA guidelines, signed over its national guard for federal command and aid was promptly and effectively distributed. As an aside, the Republican governor of Vermont arranged for extensive private aid to be delivered to the Republican governor of Alabama ( I sent a dozen 20 gallon water carboys full of spring water, and Home Depot waived the deposit on the carboys!)
The fact is that Louisiana refused help because it was Republican help, and now the Dems want to hang the president with their own tom foolery.
That's just plain sick, and I can't be silent about it. I do not know why the Pubbies do not strike back and tell the plain truth.
"We lost everything. I've worked all my life - minimum-wage jobs - ... Now I've got nothing. My wife is 65. What little savings we had is gone. FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] hasn't been any help. It's just not right."
You worked for minimum wage for all your life. Don't blame others for your poor savings. "It's just not right" that you can't accept responsibility for your own situation.
It is really no surprise that spike lee finds President Bush to blame for Katrina. President Bush is white. slime lee blames white people for every problem, including ingrown toenails, that africanhyphenamerican people have ever encountered.
Spike Lee ,the Josef Goebels of the black race.
I love New Orleans. Great food, great music, and great people. However, those people were always joking about living below sea level, and about the big one getting them one of these days. Now that it's happened, all the wailing and gnashing of teeth is like a 5 pack a day smoker suing a tabacco company over his emphysema.
Surprise, surprise.
"And the failure of the levees is his fault...."
I believe this is a MSM LIE!
The levies held. The concrete barrier channeling water broke.
A 12" concrete barrier is not a levee.
If the Dems ran the USA, the whole nation would become a banana republic like Louisiana.
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