That's a Problem for Me!

Have any of you watchd the HBO documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts? No? Well, do it. If you have HBO, you really need to see this film. I have not been able to catch Acts I and II yet, but I did see III and IV, and I sobbed through probably half of it. People, when you see this, I hope it pisses you off! I hope you feel the kind of outrage I felt. How can this government of ours turn their backs on all those people like that?? How can we continue to pour millions and millions and millions of dollars into a war and the rebuilding of another country and just forget about a vital portion of our own??? With the amount of homeless families living on our streets in America and the number of families "living" below the poverty level, and now with all of those poor people in Louisiana all but forgotten, when are we EVER going to take care of our OWN?! Am I the only one who is pissed about this?? Shouldn't New Orleans be at least halfway rebuilt by now?? Shouldn't OUR people be getting help from OUR government the way OTHER countries are?? WTF??? What can we do about this? Huh? There has to be something that we can do to make Washington hear us "regular" folk on this issue! Especially now with a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate! Those people down there are SUFFERING. Livng in those god-forsaken trailers FEMA considers fit for human habitation, many without any electricity - STILL! Almost 15 months later and most of the streets down in the lower 9th Ward are still not even cleaned up! What the hell is going on?? Someone (or LOTS of someones!) MUST be held accountable for this, and it MUST be rectified with all urgency!

So .... what can we do? What should we do? Here are a few places we might begin:

ACORN.org (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now)

Network for Good

NOLA Fund

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Posted by Leigh on November 12, 2006 7:12 PM |

Thoughts from others

I didn't know that conditions were still that bad. It is appalling. And when you word it that way: how can the US be rebuilding another country and yet not caring care of its own -- it becomes more than shocking, it becomes criminal.

Some people are all for the space program. Creech will tell you a mere fraction of the budget is used for exploration. But a fraction of THAT fraction would still be a lot, if it were channelled into needs HERE ON EARTH.

We don't get HBO directly here in Canuckland but most HBO programs find their way to other channels; so I'll keep an eye out for it.

Posted by: terry Author Profile Page | November 13, 2006 7:14 AM

Isn't it incomprehensible? I wonder where all of our outrage has gone. Why are we not protesting and screaming and chaining ourselves to fences?

Posted by: Rori Author Profile Page | November 13, 2006 10:14 PM

It all comes down to Money. There is money in helping Iraq because of the Oil. If there was Oil in New Orleans, you bet old Bushie would be there his own dumb-looking self, shovel in hand. Clinton was impeached for less.

Posted by: Roxanne Author Profile Page | November 14, 2006 7:17 AM

That's true, Rox, except for the fact that there IS oil in Louisiana. 30% of our nation's oil is produced in New Orleans and in the gulf just off of Louisiana. The HUGE difference is, Louisiana doesn't get ANY of the money from the oil!!! Other states who produce oil do - Texas and Colorado, just to name a couple. We get a percentage, why doesn't Louisiana? They produce the most oil out there and they get NOTHING??? Seems they get NOTHING all the way around, doesn't it!!

If Louisiana were to secede from the Union, they could live like Saudi Arabia! They would all be rich! They wouldn't have to rely on a Government which doesn't give two hoots about them to rebuild levees which should have been rebuilt YEARS ago - they could rebuild them, bigger and stronger, THEMSELVES! I guess the Government figures they already get all the oil AND the money from its production, so what's in it for them to rebuild New Orleans? Cold-hearted scumbag assholes!!

Posted by: Leigh Author Profile Page | November 15, 2006 5:28 PM

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