Coretta & Martin, Katrina & Bush

Warned of dire consequences before Katrina struck Bush proclaimed, “We are fully prepared.” Days later he said no one could have anticipated the levees being breached. Precisely that possibility ranked very high on disaster scenarios. New Orleans has one of the highest concentrations of poverty in the country. Most of the poor people are African American. They had no way to get out and were left abandoned. It was a free market solution. If you had a car and money for gas you could evacuate. One can only imagine if Katrina was bearing down on the Hamptons or Malibu what the response would have been. Probably the half of the military not in Iraq and Afghanistan would have been there assisting people in need. Katrina also revealed that racism in the media is alive and well. Whites gathered food to feed their families while blacks looted.

Recorded at the University of Colorado.