Spike Lee and "When the Levees Broke"

While watching Spike Lee's documentary "When the Levees Broke" several thoughts came to mind. He did an excellent job in showing the destruction, both the physical and the emotional, of New Orleans. His questions during interviews with notable figures in the tragedy were dead on and brought out interesting and differing perspectives on the storm and its aftermath. The importance of drawing the distinction between when the storm's damage ended and when the man-made damage caused by the failure of the city's defenses and the federal government's response began cannot be underestimated.

However, all those things being said, I strongly disagree with the notion that the levees were "blown up" by the federal government. It was raised in the documentary and the fact that it has some proponents baffles me. I understand why the African-American community would distrust the federal government after so many years of injustice, but the claim that explosives were set to breach the levees so that African Americans would be flooded out is simply ridiculous. It would be impossible to flood just the predominantly black Lower Ninth Ward without also flooding predominantly white Chalmette and other areas of St. Bernard Parish. After any major tragedy, conspiracy theories always abound in an attempt to explain how something so tragic could have had happened.

This documentary is important in telling the world what happened in New Orleans on August 29, 2006 and in the days and weeks afterward. However, we must continue to look forward to the day when New Orleans will be rebuilt with strengthened hurricane and flood defenses.