“The Big Uneasy” Documentary – Shown Only on August 30th – Should Be Compulsory Viewing

I had the privilege of seeing the 2010 documentary “The Big Uneasy” at the 7:00 p.m. showing at the Grove in Los Angeles at which the two producers (Karen Murphy and Christine O’Malley), the cinematographer and the Army Corps of Engineers whistleblower were introduced before the documentary unspooled.

And the only reason the documentary didn’t shock the hell out of me, with its overwhelming evidence that Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans was not a natural disaster but a man-made disaster, was because I’ve been reading the 2007 book “The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina – The Inside Story From One Louisiana Scientist” by Ivor Van Heerden (who lost his job due to his commitment to revealing the truth) and Mike Bryan.

Harry Shearer, the writer/director of the documentary, was in New Orleans at the one-night screening there. (The documentary was shown only on August 30th across the country in select theaters.)

Here’s my unscientific recounting of the man-made disaster in New Orleans:

• The Army Corps of Engineers knew since a 1988 report that the restraining walls of the levees and of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet canal were not sufficient.

• Hurricane Katrina’s surge did NOT cause the immense devastation of human life and property (the levees were NOT overtopped). The breached levees were caused by the insufficiency of the depth and strength of those levees. (Water worked itself under the levees and caused the breaches).

• The most upsetting part of the documentary is the ongoing cover-up being undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineers as well as the compelling portrayal that, while the levee breaches are being fixed, the weak levees that were not damaged in Katrina are NOT being re-engineered to withstand the next big hurricane. In other words, the insufficient levees are being left as they are to be breached next time.

If this documentary were to be compulsory viewing by all U.S. politicians (the documentary makes clear why this is such a political matter), perhaps a few courageous members of both houses of Congress would actually demand that the hurricane protection of New Orleans and the surrounding areas be built to the standards of Amsterdam.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and her social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing works with clients to use social media to attract more business. Read her social media marketing blog.

Looking Back at Katrina as New Orleans Braces for Gustav

Tonight while monitoring the tweets on Twitter about Gustav -- including the helpful communication info from a representative of Sprint -- I also read one of Big Tobacco’s older posts describing his experiences when his National Guard unit was in New Orleans after Katrina.

As you may recall, Big Tobacco is a National Guard infantryman currently deployed somewhere in Kuwait. Apparently he’s on the move from one FOB (Forward Operating Base) to another and he’s going to be away from internet access. So he kindly provided a list of some of his past blog posts for his fans to read while he’s offline.

That’s how I came across his Katrina post, which I highly recommend you read. There are some very funny moments (the military mind at work) and some very ugly moments (the boots-on-the-ground situation patrolling the streets of New Orleans). Taken together, the post is a very interesting first-hand look at New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.

And at this point, all we can hope is that history doesn’t repeat itself in New Orleans only three years after Katrina.

Here’s the link to Big Tobacco’s Katrina post: http://tinyurl.com/6h59vq

And here’s the link to my PZ the Do-Gooder Scrooge blog post about an online central information point for news of Gustav: http://tinyurl.com/6pkccj

(Just saw a warning on Twitter not to shoot video of Gustav from cell phones while driving. This is dangerous!)

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Big Tobacco, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Gustav, New Orleans, National Guard, Iraq War, Mrs. Lieutenant, Twitter, PZ the Do-Gooder Scrooge

Guest Post from Iraq: People Like Him Don't Do Things Like That

Here is a guest post sent today from Iraq by U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Big Tobacco (check out his own blog at www.big-tobacco.blogspot.com):

"Don't take this the wrong way, but people like me don't do things like that. So why do you?"

I'm confused by this statement. I look across the table at my date. Her face is as perfect as a Russian doll. Her blond hair falls in ringlets around her shoulders. She is so beautiful that I am willing to forgive the question.

Yet the question haunts me. What does that mean?

Why did I release my attachments? Why did I learn to suffer? Why don't I feel special?

And don't do things like what? Serve your country?

I was like her growing up. My father spent four years in the Air Force so that he would not get drafted into the Army for two. Rich Jews from the suburbs didn't join the Army and they certainly didn't join the Infantry. Other people did that.

"Gabora tells me you are in the Army," her mother says when we finally meet. "When do you get out?"

"I'm thinking of making it a career," I say.

She almost chokes on her brisket.

I had a book in my bedroom years ago: "The Story of My Life" by Moshe Dayan. I went to sleep dreaming of thundering across the Sinai in my APC, giving the Egyptians a run for their money. I crossed the Suez Canal and set up a hasty defense as the mortars plunked into the sand. Moshe Dayan, now that was a life. If someone wrote a book about my life, would anyone want to read it?

"Is that a ninja star on your neck?" one of my Army buddies asks while I am in the shower.

"It's a Magan David," I respond.

"So it's like a Jewish cross."

"Close enough," I say.

I progress. I carry that damn Dragon anti-tank missile up and down the hills of Germany, waiting for enemies that never appear. I drive a track through the mud, relishing the feeling I get when all of us come up on line, guns blazing, dismounts screaming, shell casing tumbling to the ground. Someone thinks I am a leader. They give me a fire team.

"Hey, sarn't. Is it true that Jews have sex through a sheet?"

"No," I say. "Years ago, people would hang their tallit out to dry on clothes lines. There is a hole in a tallit for your head. Non-Jews saw the hole and made their own assumptions about its purpose."

"So you just put your head in it when you're going down?"

"Yeah, private, all the time."

I have no menorah so I kick sand over at the pistol range until I turn up nine empty shell casings. I glue them to a paint stick. We turn death into life. We use birthday candles from the dining facility. The three Jews in the battalion light the candles on the second night of Hanukkah.

"Did you see the chaplain's t-shirt?" one of my soldiers asks.

I squint at the paunchy chaplain as he orders a double hamburger in the short-order line at the dining facility. His shirt reads "Repent or Die."

"Repent or Die?" I say. "Should read repent or diet."

I realize that if my religion believed in hell, I'd probably be first in line for the elevator.

Towers fall. I step on a ribcage at Ground Zero and nothing funny comes to mind about that. I have a child and swear that I will keep Moshe Dayan's biography under lock and key. I stand at a bridge wondering how I am supposed to stop a 747 with 10 rounds from a rifle.

New wars start. The deployments come.

I get promoted to squad leader. I live at a checkpoint in the middle of the desert, wondering if something, anything is going to happen. I sit and have hot, sweet tea with the police. My G-d, no wonder everybody here is diabetic, this is like liquid sugar. We discuss music and movies. They tell me how much they would love to come to America and meet a nice American girl. They ask if I am a Christian. I know that the truth would make my squad a target of opportunity.

So I tell them that I follow the Phillies religiously.

I come home.

I break the fast on Yom Kippur with Air Force airmen after patrolling the mud-caked streets of New Orleans. My second son is born. Life returns to normal.

"So you can get out of it, right?" My neighbor asks after I tell him that I will deploy to Iraq. I live in a Jewish neighborhood in New Jersey and am the only soldier in my synagogue.

"No," I respond. "You can't get out of it."

"But you have kids?" he says. "Maybe if you talk to them, they will let you get out of it."

"It doesn't work like that."

Learn to suffer. Release your attachments. You are not special.

Some idiot makes me a platoon sergeant. Now I have 32 men and women. Many of them are poor Puerto Ricans and blacks from places like Camden, Jersey City and Newark. I'm the first Jew many of them have ever met.

They drop pennies on the floor of the barracks when I walk inside. They leave "The Passion of the Christ" on my cot. I watch it. It's a good movie, but “Braveheart” was better. They are joking, pushing me to see how much I can take. It really is endearing. As long as they are making fun of me, they like me. The day they stop making Jewish jokes is the day I better start looking under my cot for grenades.

I live a life of meetings and lists. I am on call by my lieutenant 24 hours a day. Soldiers wake me up in the middle of the night because they have a problem. I get my new rifle and now my body is whole again.

"Is that pork or turkey?" I ask the dining facility worker while pointing at a brown patty of something for breakfast.

"It is uh?" The worker says in broken English. He doesn't understand the question. "It is sausage patty."

"Thanks, dude. I'll just have some eggs."

I sit down to eat my eggs and cereal. My first sergeant comes over to my table and sits down.

"You know, I can get you a kosher meal," he says.

"I'm not special, Top," I say. "You'll never hear me complain. People like me don't do things like that."

Oh, and by the way, the blond at the beginning of this story? I married her.

And I still don't know the answer to that question.

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Lifetime’s ARMY WIVES Episode 4 of Season 2: What a Difference a Writer Can Make

This episode 4 of season 2 of Lifetime’s ARMY WIVES – titled “Leaving the Tribe” – is on an entirely different plane than the first three episodes of this season. I looked up on www.imdbpro.com the credited writer of the episode – Bruce Zimmerman – with story credit to Nick Thiel.

And then I knew why this episode was so emotional I’m writing this blog post with zig zag lines in front of my eyes from a migraine due to tension.

Nick Thiel is a co-executive producer on USA Network’s BURN NOTICE, the second season for which I’m waiting for July 10 with much anticipation. And Bruce Zimmerman was a writer and supervising producer on Fox’s K-VILLE, which last season I faithfully watched its compelling stories of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and I much regret there will be no second season.

Why did I find this 4^th episode of season 2 of ARMY WIVES so compelling? Many reasons. Here are some – without giving anything away:

Denise talking by computer hook-up to her husband in Iraq when he says that what she’s doing isn’t proper for an officer’s wife. (A theme of MRS. LIEUTENANT.)

Roxy talking about the history of the Hump Bar as the first such integrated place in that area. (Another theme of MRS. LIEUTENANT.)

Claudia Joy and her husband the general walking over to two soldiers just off a plane from Iraq who are not met by any loved ones. (Also a theme of MRS. LIEUTENANT as well as the book’s website listing of www.soldiersangels.org, whose motto is “May No Soldier Go Unloved.”)

Hats off to Bruce Zimmerman and Nick Thiel for an episode that rang very true – and very compelling.

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