"The Way We Forget"

William Rivers Pitt:

This country of ours has a monstrous capacity to forget. We are able to forget - if we ever knew - what happened two hundred years ago, one hundred years ago, fifty years ago, ten years ago. Worse, we are able to forget what happened one year ago, last month, last week, and even yesterday. We forget, we ignore, we refuse to know, and in our deliberate ignorance are found the seeds of further destruction, widely sown and also to be forgotten.

It has been made far too clear that our national amnesia certainly extends over the last two years. After an era of Republican rule that saw vast economic collapse, the abrogation of basic rights, the trashing of Constitutional law, two decade-long wars that still have no end in sight, a catastrophic terrorist attack that could have been prevented, the virtual annihilation of a major American city that could have been prevented, and the theft and waste of trillions of dollars, every available poll appears to indicate that the American people have already forgotten all about it, and are perfectly ready to let the wolves back inside the fence. MORE...

thebiguneasy: "Floodwall Contractor Ordered to Cut Corners" (video)

thebiguneasy, video (00:41):

Excerpt from The Big Uneasy, a documentary by Harry Shearer. In theaters August 30 - one day only! A listing of all the theaters, and more, here: http://thebiguneasy.com/
In this clip, a contractor goes to court to do build a floodwall to a standard higher than the Corps standard.

"If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise" - A Conversation w/ Spike Lee (HBO-video)

HBO, video (06:12):

Spike Lee discusses the lingering effects of Katrina in New Orleans, and the impact of recent events like the Superbowl and BP oil spill. For more information, log onto HBO.com.

GRITtv: "Is it Fair to Compare Haiti to New Orleans?" (video)

GRITtv, with video (24:30):

The comparisons between the earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans have come fast and furious, but often from people who’ve watched both disasters through the clean-cut white lens of Anderson Cooper broadcasts. Meanwhile, people in Haiti–and those in the Gulf Coast still struggling four years later–need more than blame and comparisons. They need real solutions.

To offer some, we ask Monika Kalra Varma, director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Princeton professor, Nation contributor, and author of Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought and James Perry, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center and candidate for mayor of New Orleans.

Thanks to Chicken & Egg Pictures for video in this segment.