Minute paper for February 26, 2008

Today we were given the opportunity to watch Spike Lee's groundbreaking documentary "when the levees broke" about the tragedy and effects of Hurricane Katrina on the people of New Orleans. Previously, as a former dedicated viewer of Oprah, I had heard about the film before it was released and had always wanted to watch it just as I still need to watch "An Inconvinient Truth." So I was very pleased to hear we'd be watching it, and intend on buyig it after seeing what we got to today. Even without watching the video I had been aware of our government's slow response to the tragedy that was Hurricane Katrina. In fact, I used my knowledge as examples to attack our government in some of my newspaper articles in high school. Anyway, I remembered just watching the news about the whole situation and becoming more and more infuriated due to the fact that the tragedy occurred only six months after we hurriedly came to the rescue of the tsunami struck Thailand. I remember losing more respect for my government in witnessing that they could quickly come to the aid of other countries like Thailand or Iraq, yet when it came to a disaster on our own soil, they allowed our people to suffer for days before they really showed their presence. I remember hearing on Dateline that vice president Dick Cheyney had been hunting while all te devastation was going on. I remember Kanye West's statement "George Bush doesn't care about black people!" I remember debating with myself about whether those people had any right to be looting the stores. I remember sympathizing with them for having to steal food because for some reason none was being sent to them. I remember hearing that our government had been aware that the levees weren't strong enough to withstand the hurricane. Honestly, the video today allowed me to know so much more about the pathetic way in which the tragedy was handled and how badly the people of New Orleans suffered and still suffer. Also, the story of the man who had to let go of his wife in the wheelchair, just broke my heart. I believe Mayor Nagin did the best he could with his resources, to take on such a tragedy as widespread as that, just in the position he has, I believe he did well and should be commended. There were many parts in the video that built up my disappointment, moreso anger, with the government, but i have to say the part that infuriated me the most was the shot of President Bush hugging and kissing some of the victims. It's like 'oh hey I'm five days late, assuming I had no idea about the possibility of this happening, and I could've saved the lives of more than a thousand people, but I was too concerned about what was going on Iraq and I just don't have the capacity to deal with two major things at a time, unless it's in another country, but I'm here now so give me a hug.' Just dumb. Obama for president!=)