What struck me the most about watching the 2006 documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts was how despite the horrific effects of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the United States and all of its people forgot about the citizens who needed them the most. Interestingly, it got me thinking about what I was doing at this time. Even though I was only six then, I remember that the day before Katrina hit I was sitting in the yard handing my dad nails while he boarded up the windows to our house. During the hurricane, I sat in a dark house with no power, stepping outside at one point with my dad to watch the eye of the hurricane pass over our house. The worst was yet to come. In the living room, we listened to the news with our generator-powered radio as Katrina passed over Florida and made its way to Louisiana. I remember that the day after the storm was over, all of my neighbors emerged from their houses for a street-wide grill out to celebrate the fact that we had made it out with just some damaged properties, something the citizens of New Orleans never got the chance to do. It hurts to acknowledge, especially after what had happened to the citizens of New Orleans, the fact that my own and many others’ lives simply went back to normal after Katrina. They had been just like my community, waiting to ride out the storm and go back to normal. Yet many of the residents of New Orleans have yet to return to normal after fifteen years and probably never will.
I couldn’t believe how an entire nation could move on when one of our own states is experiencing such a tremendous loss of housing, community, and most importantly loved ones. I’m appalled, but should I say, not surprised with how the United States had handled the situation in New Orleans. The lack of planning and preparation for the levees of a major city and the inability to get help for those stuck in rising floodwaters, the convention center, and the Superdome are not the marks of the first-world country that we claim to be. If we really are the United States, how could we let this happen to our own people? Our own country? This documentary seems to respond to these questions with answers that many would rather turn a blind eye to. The director, Spike Lee, succeeds in exposing the fact that the United States is ill-prepared for any tragedies that take place on its own land for the simple reason that politicians’ images and agendas are more important than the people they are supposed to represent — whether that be due to race, class, or the sheer possible fact that they just don’t care about any of their citizens’ lives. Politicians and government branches were too busy galavanting around the country for photo opportunities and visiting other countries than tending to the people of New Orleans who needed them the most at that time.
The fact is, we need to do a LOT better. The United States claims to be a leading country, but looking at other Americans clinging to the roofs of their houses while their friends’ and family members’ lifeless bodies washed up in their own city’s streets tells me another story. The United States needs to stop moving on as if time and a blind eye could cover up the fact that we failed an entire city. It only makes the situation more disappointing and embarrassing. We must reflect and accept that those lost lives are in our hands. All of ours. We must go forward with a plan to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all our citizens. After all, who is to say the government won’t fail me or you next?