When the Lebvve Broke

When the Lebvve Broke

The story of New Orleans and failing of the Levees is an important event of America’s history. I think the director Spike Lee does a great job of capturing the event in its entirety. Spike lee is known to make movies that examine race relations and political issues. The story of New Orleans during Katrina touches on both subjects strongly. Woman, men and children all piled inside the Superdome as the storm destroyed their homes and businesses. Many of the elderly citizens of New Orleans relied on faith to get them through the storm saying ‘I survived Betsy in 1965, so I will be fine”. But the controversy surrounding the hurricane Betsy storm in 1965 gave a stage for the conspiracy theories for Katrina. In 1965, during Hurricane Betsy, the government intentionally bombed the levees to save the wealthy properties of uptown New Orleans. People in the lower 9th ward was so used to being ripped off, that it wasn’t much of a stretch to believe that the government was flooding their homes. So I asked the question, does wealth determine the urgency of help initiated during tragedies?
The documentary consisted of almost 100 people with diverse backgrounds and opinions for this film, but for the most part, a lot had mutual feelings that had to do with color. As Kanye West bluntly stated “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” and although it was a profound statement it seemed to be true amongst the Katrina victims. But as I look into the facts, I can’t help to wonder if they’re really true. One of the things Carl Schmitt mentions in his book is associating politics with the economy and politics with morality but when this disaster struck President George Bush was on a mini vacation, and did not response to the situation until 2 weeks after the storm.

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