I’ve always been interested in how the American government treats it’s people and the seeming inability for us to get out of the detrimental cycles that we go over seas to free other people from. I’m currently watching; If God willing and Da creek don’t rise; a follow up documentary style film by Spike Lee. A follow up to When the levees broke which was done to bring to light the plight of those affected by hurricane Katrina.

If God willing and Da creek don’t rise is heart breaking, they examine everything from just the general feeling of the people, to the time in which our government at the time responded; that response in comparison to our response to foreign disaster, the rise in mental issues of the people who survived Katrina, the level of crime and the corruption of the police; the racial tensions and mistreatments in comparison to other states and the more recent BP/Oil Spill disaster.

It can’t be denied that at times as the policeman for the world, we tend to care for others more than our own. This film highlights those things and will hopefully make the people who are exposed to it, examine American as a country first; filled with people who have dire needs, more dire if not equally as some of the countries that we spend on…but, we don’t show these things on TV. Why would we? If we can stay trapped in the idea that America is great and that we are great for the world community on the whole, then our citizens won’t wonder collectively and demand action on many of the social injustices that we experience. We’re taught that we’re so much better off that everyone else so we shouldn’t complain; but when we’re not leading the world by example then its all for nothing.

Action needs to be taken and it starts with every individual wanting something to change. We don’t have to be masked vigilantes to make a difference but we should clean our own yard before we criticize someone else’s.