I watched a little bit of Spike Lee’s When the Levee Broke on HBO last night. What I saw of it was a blatant attack on the federal government for slack work on the levees.
Several people were trying to bring a civil suit against the Army Corps of Engineers. As it turns out the US Government is not liable for flood damage so there is no suit. Which is a good thing. Here’s why; if the people of New Orleans sued the government and won, where do you think the settlement money would come from? That’s right folks, it would come right out of the taxpayers pocket. I might as well just let one of the victims walk into my house and rob me while I’m standing there watching. At least then they’d have to look me in the eye when they took my money.
I have several more issues. First and foremost, the documentary implied that everyone knew the levees would not hold. Or at least that the government knew that the levees wouldn’t hold. Okay so if you know you are living in a damn flood zone, why the hell are you living there? Seriously, who puts a freaking house up next to a levee wall? Who does that? To whom does that sound logical? So you want to hold the federal government responsible for flood damage to your house when you chose to live in a flood zone. The government can’t control the weather.
Second, and also as important as number one, and maybe the real lesson we need to learn here; if you have a problem with how the government is handling things you don’t sue the government. You elect better officials. I really think that things like city planning and state planning should be left to the city and the state. To not let the city and state control those issues just gives the federal government that much more power. Maybe if the federal government wasn’t so busy building levees and making decisions about people’s moral choices then they could, oh I don’t know, patrol the borders of the country.
The documentary also talked about the oil revenue that flows through Louisianna. I italicized through because according to several of the people interviewed, none of the money stays in Louisianna. Several other states get a percentage of the revenue from their oil and gas production but evidently Louisianna does not. This leads back to point number two. Who are the elected officials that are letting that happen? Maybe you need to vote for someone else. The governor is apparently taking action to try and get revenue from the energy production, claiming that with it they can do their own rebuilding. I must say that is about the most sensible thing I’ve heard from anyone in the area. The feds would have a fit if Louisianna started selling their offshore operations to other countries.