NBC's Brian Williams: What about this widely held perception in New Orleans that the federal government somehow played a role in the blowing of the levees? So many people believe that now. Does that break your heart that that exists?
President Bush: Yeah, I've heard that. And when I went to one of the shelters, remember one of the ladies saying to me and Governor Blanco, "You know, why did the federal government, or why did government, blow this up?" And I said, "Ma'am, I really can assure you it didn't happen." But yet there's a perception, particularly in the Ninth Ward, that that's the case.
Williams: What do you do about that?
President Bush: You just try to tell the truth. You know, it was really interesting. If you read the book about the great flood in the late '20s, the levees were breached in order to save New Orleans. And so maybe that's part of why people are thinking that way. It just didn't happen. And I'm so sorry people feel that way, because one of the things that's important is for people to trust, you know, the government. And if they thought that the government had helped destroy their lives, then obviously there would be no trust.
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What's the point here, Nadir? Some NOLA residents believe something that's not true. The racial composition of NOLA Katrina deaths (60/40% black/white) compared with NOLA's residential racial composition (70/30%) provides strong evidence against any charge of racism there; to the contrary, the statistics show that whites had a greater liklihood of dying. Other facts also demonstrate an absence of racism, including all the honkies around the country who opened their homes to Katrina refugees, who sent money and even traveled there to help, and who railed against Bush for not getting the federal calvary in faster. Even ALL the Fox News honkey rightist commentators constantly berated the federal response.
Watching Spike Lee's "Levee" documentary, I see a horde of people from New Orleans -- black **AND** white -- all upset with the US govt, specifically George Bush. All the honkies that I spoke with in NOLA in June (a dozen or so, mostly in bars) uniformly expressed this view as well. So, if all the white folks are just as upset as the black folks, how can Bush's response represent racism? The white folks weren't mad on behalf how the black folks suffered, they were upset by how they themselves personally suffered, with the same response from Bush that the black folks got. WHERE IS THE RACISM?
Spike Lee's film indicates that no black folks know the definition of the word "refugee", including Rev. Al Sharpton. Surely some black folks know the definition of this word; why didn't Lee include them in the film?
Interesting that the anger by people who don't know what "refugee" meant resulted in the media uniformly dropping the term; why instead didn't the media broadcast the meaning of the word? Disappointing ignorance won this semantic controversy.
Spike's film shows that lots of white folks around the country welcomed and helped black Katrina refugees. WHERE IS THE RACISM? Lots of charges of racism, but no evidence.
I wonder if the people and leaders in LA and SF have done any better a job of protecting their cities against the inevitable Big One earthquake, and preparing for a response to it. I assume that FEMA as of last year would have done no better in its response to a Big One quake in LA or SF; it might do better now due to all the criticism over Katrina. As for the local leaders there, and the people who depend on them, I am not certain that they have done, and would do, a better job than the NOLA and Louisiana leaders. If Bush called a post-quake CA governor and asked "What do you want FEMA to do?", I suppose that unlike the the Louisiana gov who said perposterously, "Everything", he/she would provide a specific list.
Perhaps the biggest Katrina idiots are the wealthy local people with enormous business interests who had the power over the past 60 years or so to have their interests protected -- but did not -- by ensuring that the city had an adaquet levee system. Surely they are not so lame as to blame Bush and the Corps of Engineers. Had they acted responsibly over the past few decades their city would have had the neccessary levees, which is the ultimate source of this disaster. The leaders in coastal southern Alaska could finagle the US Congress into building a competely unneccessary "Bridge to Nowhere" that serves no national purpose; but the leaders of southern Louisiana could not amass a combination of federal, state, local, and private resources to erect levees to protect a city that:
- Represents a vital economic position vis a vis perhaps the most important US water way;
- Plays a vital role in petroleum exploration, production, and refinement in the US gulf;
- Is without question unsurpassed in historical and cultural importance;
- Has an important -- and limitlessly potential -- tourism industry.
It is not as if the people of NOLA have believed all these years that the Corps of Engineers had provided them a failsafe levess system that could withstand a major storm. To the contrary, in the 20 years that I have regularly visited NOLA, people of all walks of life have constantly commented that the levees would fail if a hurricane landed, and that one surely would, and that it would submerse the city. So with this knowlege, the leaders of this area seem to have done nothing.
Nadir: Interesting to me that Spike frequently featured our friend, Calvin Mackie, who does know the definition of the word, "refugee", and has tried to correct people angered by its correct application to the NOLA people who fled "seeking refuge", but did not include this commentary from Calin during that segment.
Several people in Spike's film -- black and white -- claimed that they never thought that the levees would break, which contradicts all my personal interactions over the years. But one black guy said what I've always heard, that (paraphrase) "ever since I was a kid, we always knew that the levees would fail if a big storm occured, and that a big storm would one day occur. But I never heard anybody ever trying to do anything about it. I never heard people complain that there wasn't enough money, and making noise about needing money to build safe levees."
Surely the insurance companies are devils here. Lots of people talk about how they have weasled out of providing the service that they sold. But worse, what did their leaders do the past 50 years to ensure that the area got levees (via various tax and private sources) to protect their own investments? Apparently: nothing.
A local NOLA black guy correctly states in the Lee film: "They've known for 15 years that the levees wouldn't hold. Federal, state, local govt and the Army Corps. And nobody did anything." He should have added: all the wealthy local business owners.
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