Trouble the Water

Yeah, yeah. I know. You've given your last ounce of visual empathy toward the victims of Katrina. Perhaps you sent money. Maybe you offered some time and effort to the healing of New Orleans by visiting the Quarter again or attending Jazz Fest in the subsequent years. You've watched all 372 hours of Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke, have no more philanthropic gas in the tank and you are now ready to move on and put the whole nasty debacle behind you.

How much can you be expected to give?

Well, about another hour and a half, Motherfucker, and you'll be glad you did.

Trouble the Water is one of those rare documentaries that completely stems from the principals of the tragedy itself. Raw footage from the survivors that weave a much different truth than hundreds of talking heads or speculators can reveal.

It is the story of Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her husband Scott, former drug dealers in the Ninth Ward who had the foresight to capture, on their video cam, the devastating effects the storm had on the actual people of that neighborhood. Small, first-hand stories of the poor son-of-a-bitches who had to weather that monster.

Whereas Spike Lee brilliantly told the entire sweeping tragedy of the storm - the politics, the common people, the media, the power players, the infrastructure, the government foibles, etc. -  Trouble the Water deals simply with the microcosm of one particular family caught up in the maelstrom of the event. Talk to me of heroes.

Their tragedies, their fears, their confusion, bewilderment, hassles, oppression, pain, angst and turmoil in the face of America's last largest catastrophe.

What Trouble gets at, even better than Lee's opus, is the inherent racism and disregard toward the financially lesser of our society.

For all the horror that Katrina wrought, it did benefit us in opening up this country's eyes to a glaring disparity in how we treat those on smaller economic levels. It was the Waterloo of the Bush Administration. Remember, he vaingloriously claimed a mandate from the people with a 2.4% win in the 2004 election and was still unfathomably riding (less than a year later) a positive approval rating before the storm. Katrina, for all its ills, made most Americans (honest, thoughtful Americans) realize that his Presidency, policies and direction were altogether full of shit. A large price to pay to see fellow citizens suffer as they did, but a necessary evil to give a wake up call to the monstrously inept way the country had been handled since 2000.

Many of us were already aware. But Katrina settled the argument.

Unfortunately America remains an inherently racist and economically sadistic society that prefers to put blinders on with regard to the damage and humiliation it foists on its "phantom" underclass.

The Roberts' troubles are not the troubles of most Americans. We would prefer to forget people like them exist. It's too inconvenient when you are driving your SUV or Minivan to the Wal-Mart to buy a DVD player for your vehicle or a spangled tube sweater for your dog. What we forget is many people in this nation are still solving the problems of food on the table every night. It's not about what to bring to the tailgate next Saturday. For a lot of our fellow countrymen, it's about a son or daughter going to bed hungry at night and the breadwinner being out of work for the unforeseeable future.

Many of us lose that perspective in our comfort and walled off existence.

What Trouble the Water does is smack you in the face with the reality of it all. It is a heartfelt struggle of people who want better for themselves and their family, but simply have no way to realize it.

But the Roberts found a way. Through the tragedy. Through all odds against them. With a little assistance from relatives and friends and with a large amount of guts and goodness of their own, they rose above it.

They foolishly thanked god throughout (that ghost always seems to abandon the impoverished in their hour of need) not realizing it was their own determination and wherewithal that got them through. Their efforts were so admirable and life affirming that you forgave them their supernatural placebo.

These are strong people. These are American people. They simply needed a little assistance from their government and did not often get it. And that shouldn't be.

But amongst this culture of race-baiting, socialist-fearing, small-government-desiring, selfish greed-mongers, their needs were looked upon as another handout to the "welfare" crowd.

It took a storm of significant power and upheaval to make the Roberts find their strength and motivation to begin again.

I wonder what access to basic education, health care, community and a spirit of legitimacy might have done for them before the storm ever came?

You know, from a country whose primary concern should be for its citizens, instead of waging endless, costly wars abroad.

We'll probably never know.