resilient is going to be increasingly important because we are going to see more extreme weather events as the result of climate change. deeper droughts, deadlier wildfires, stronger storms. amy: we will spend the hour with new orleans native actor wendell pierce, best known for his roles in "the wire" and "treme." monique harden and journalist .ary rivlin... all of that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. hundreds more people fleeing violence in syria, afghanistan, pakistan, iraq, sub-saharan africa and other regions have reportedly died en route to europe as the world grapples with what's being described the worst migration crisis since world war ii. as many as 200 people may have drowned when a boat headed to southern europe sank off the libyan coast thursday. another boat with 50 people on board also reportedly capsized thursday. swedish officials say they also found the bodies of more than 50 people who died from breathing toxic fumes in the hold of another ship. the mediterranean sea has become one of the world's deadliest borders, as more than 300,000 people displaced by war and violence have attempted to reach europe this year. on thursday, german chancellor angela merkel attended a summit with leaders from the western balkans about the migration crisis. meanwhile, less than 30 miles away, residents held a vigil to commemorate the deaths of more than 70 people who apparently suffocated in a truck earlier this week while attempting to reach northern european countries. one of the vigil-goers called for people to receive safe passage throughout europe. >> building up our borders refining inc. does even more -- were fighting even more cannot be the solution. these people have nothing to lose. the choices between taking a chance in coming to europe, or dying at home. on thursday, president obama amy:on thursday, president obama spoke in new orleans on the 10th anniversary of hurricane katrina, the 2005 storm that devastated the gulf coast and new orleans, killing more than 1800 people, forcing more than a million people to evacuate. >> the storm laid bare a deeper tragedy that had been brewing for decades because we came to understand that new orleans, like so many cities and communities across the country, had for too long been plagued by structural inequalities that left too many people, especially poor people, especially people of color, without good jobs or affordable health care or decent housing. amy: we will have more on hurricane katrina after the headlines. among our guests will be the actor wendell pierce, a new orleans native who wrote "the wind in the reeds" in news from guatemala, tens of thousands of people marched through the streets thursday to demand the resignation of president otto perez molina. it is the latest in months of massive demonstrations over a corruption scandal that has led to the resignation of the majority of the pr of top officials. earlier this week, the guatemalan supreme court lifted the president's the immunity from prosecution clearing the , way for his impeachment, and passing the impeachment recommendation along to the guatemalan congress. for our full coverage of the ongoing uprising in guatemala, go to democracynow.org. in news from mexico, the parents of the 43 students who disappeared after being attacked and detained by local police last year, are preparing to send a delegation to philadelphia in efforts to meet with pope francis in september. the disappearance of the 43 young men, who were training at the rural teachers' college of ayotzinapa in the southern state of guerrero, has sparked international outcry and prompted calls for president enrique pena nieto's resignation. on wednesday, family members and residents marked the 11 month anniversary of their disappearance. felipe de la cruz sandoval, spokesperson for the families of the disappeared students denounced the alleged , destruction of surveillance footage that may have captured the students' kidnapping. they madeff, the fact a surveillance video disappear from the tribunal for justice inequality. this evidence is the most important. it is the moment when they stopped the bus to take away some of the m people. by disappearing them, was he the protection and complicity that they want to get to the criminals of that night. we are ready new we could not confide in the mexican government and now with these results, we can confide even less. amy: american officials say a u.s. drone strike has killed a 21-year-old british citizen who was a member of the self-proclaimed islamic state's hacking team. officials say junaid hussain, from birmingham, england, was killed in raqqa, syria on tuesday. meanwhile, yemeni officials say u.s. drone strikes have killed five people in the southeastern sea port of mukalla. the dead are being described as suspected members of al-qaeda. in the united states, north dakota has legalized the police's use of drones armed with pepper spray, tear gas, sound cannons, and tasers. the legislation, signed by the governor in april, also permits the police to use drones to collect real time intelligence video after obtaining a search warrant. the father of 24-year-old journalist alison parker who was killed along with 27-year-old cameraman adam ward during wednesday's fatal shooting in roanoke, virginia, has cemented action on gun control. they died after suspected gunman vester flanagan opened fire in the morning broadcast of local wdbj.tation flanagan had spoken out about racial grievances he had at the station and other stations where he had worked. the lycée flanagan shot himself later wednesday and died in the hospital. outon parker's father spoke for gun control during an interview on fox news. >> mark my words, my mission in life, and i talked to the gunboat -- governor today, i told him, i said, i'm going to do something, no matter what it takes, to get gun legislation -- to shame people, to shame legislators into doing something andt closing loopholes background checks and making sure crazy people don't get guns. the national labor relations board has issued a ruling that could clear the way for fast-food workers and other employees to collectively bargain with large corporations, such as mcdonald's rather than , with the individual franchises or subcontracting companies. the decision held that a california company called browning-ferris industries was a joint employer of the subcontracted workers who had been hired to staff its recycling center. the ruling means that a union representing those subcontracted workers now have the right to collectively bargain with the top company. labor lawyers are saying it could be one of the most significant rulings in the last 35 years. nasa says that satellite imaging has already shown a dramatic rise in sea levels due to climate change, with more in store in the coming years. the panel announced that the worldwide sea level has risen an average of nearly three inches since 1992. the scientists also predicted that the sea level could rise as high as six feet by 2100. >> most scientists believe about three feet by 2100 is probably the most likely sea level rise we will have, but there estimates as low as one foot and as high as six feet by 2100. which would be really devastating. amy: in chicago, relatives and community members held church services to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the death of 14-year-old emmett till, who was abducted, beaten, and shot after he allegedly whistled at a white female store clerk named carolyn bryant while till was visiting relatives in mississippi. his mother had taught him to whistle anytime he felt a stutter coming on. he was kidnapped from his uncle's farm on august 28, 1955. his corpse was found three days later in the tallahatchie river, with a bullet hole in his head, barbed wire wrapped around his neck, and a cotton-gin fan weighing down his body. till's mother, mamie till mobley, held an open-casket funeral for her son in chicago, wanted to show the ravages of racism, the brutality of the katrina. the published images of his brutalized body galvanized the civil rights movement. store clerk carolyn bryant's husband, roy bryant, and his half-brother, j.w. milam, were tried and acquitted for till's murder by an all-white all-male jury that fall. the two later confessed to the murder, but have since died. meanwhile, saturday is the first anniversary of the death of 17-year-old lennon lacy, who was found hanging from a swing set in a majority-white trailer park in the tiny town of bladenboro, north carolina one year ago. local authorities quickly ruled his death a suicide, a claim his family disputed. lacy had been in a relationship with an older white woman, who has said that they often faced harassment for their interracial relationship. his death is being investigated by the fbi as a possible lynching. and the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york has announced it is joining the investigation into the death of samuel harrell, a 30-year-old african american man who died at the fishkill correctional facility in beacon, new york, in april after as many as 20 corrections officers kicked, punched, and dragged him down a flight of stairs while he was handcuffed. harrell was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. the group of the officers who assaulted harrell are known as the "beat up squad." in poughkeepsie, new york, residents staged a protest thursday to demand criminal charges be brought against the officers. margaret kwateng of the hudson valley black lives matter coalition spoke out. >> we are here today to get justice for samuel harrell's family, here to demand that the da william grady press charges on all of the officers involved in his fatal beating. the officers continue to work in the facility and continue to harass and dehumanize the prisoners that are there. this is to make sure that samuel harrell's life matters and the make sure he is brought into the black lives matter movement as a prisoner's life often doesn't seem to be touted in the same way. amy: seminal harrell died in the hospital after the guard beating. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i am one gonzalez. we spend the hour today marking the 10th anniversary of hurricane katrina, the 2005 storm that devastated the gulf coast and new orleans, killing more than 1800 people, forcing more than a million people to evacuate. 10 years later after hurricane katrina, new orleans has become a different city. the population is about 385,000, about 80% of its pre-katrina population. the number of african-americans has plunged by nearly 100,000 since the storm. according to the urban league, the income gap between black and white residents has increased 37% since 2005. thousands of homes, many in african-american neighborhoods, remain abandoned. thursday, president obama spoke in new orleans remembering what happened 10 years ago. >> here in new orleans, city that embodies a celebration of life, suddenly seemed devoid of life. a place once defined by color fish dish, the cross crawfish boils, the music always in the air, suddenly was dark and silent. and the world watched in horror. we saw the rising waters drown the iconic streets of new orleans. families stranded on rooftops, bodies in the streets, children crying, crowded in the superdome. an american city dark and underwater. and this was something that was supposed to never happen here. maybe someplace else, but not here, not in america. and we came to realize that was started out as a natural disaster became a man-made disaster, a failure of government to look out for its own citizens. and the storm laid bare aeeper tragedy that had been brewing for decades because we came to understand that new orleans, like so many cities and communities across the country, have for too long been plagued by structural inequalities that left too many people, especially poor people, especially people of color, without good jobs or affordable health care or decent housing. amy: president obama went on to herald the progress new orleans has made rebuilding since hurricane katrine devastated the city 10 years ago. >> as hard as rebuilding levees is, as hard as rebuilding housing is, real change, real lasting structural change, that is even harder. and it takes courage to experiment with new ideas and change the old ways of doing things. that is hard. getting it right and making sure that everybody is included and everybody is a fair shot at success, that takes time. that is not unique to new orleans. we have those challenges all across the country. but i am here to say, i am here to hold up a mirror and say, because of you, the people of new orleans working together, this city is moving in the right direction. and i have never been more confident that together we will get together where -- get to where we need to go. in may go today we look at hurricane katrina and the state of new orleans a decade after the storm. joining us from new orleans is monique harden, codirector and attorney with the new orleans-based advocates for environmental human rights. gary rivlin is a former "new york times" reporter, an investigative fellow at the nation institute. his latest book is, "katrina: after the storm." and joining us from los angeles, wendell pierce, new orleans native, acclaimed actor, tony award-winning producer, and community activist. he may be best known for his "oles in "the wire" and "treme about new orleans and the musicians and the storm. his new book is " "the wind in the reeds: a storm, a play, and the city that would not be broken." the story and part tells the story of his great-grandfather who came to new orleans as a slave in the 1850's. we welcome you all to democracy now! we would like to start by asking each of you your thoughts on this 10 year anniversary of new orleans. wendell pierce, why don't we begin with you? new orleans native. where is new orleans today? where does it need to be? >> i will start in the words that dickens gave us centuries ago, "it is the best of times, it was the worst of times, it is a tale of two cities." new orleans 10 years after katrina is definitely coming back. it is definitely thriving. it is definitely bringing in new generation of entrepreneurial spirit, new businesses, new restaurants, reformation of the schools, reformation of the levees and the water protection system. so there is a lot to celebrate, but never start a discussion about katrina without remembering the 1800 plus souls who lost their lives 10 years flood of thatat great city. we should always remember them. it was the worst of times because we still are in a city been institutionalized system and point of view where there are those that don't have our best interest at heart, if you live in certain parts of the city. it doesn't give the same attention and resources that it does to other parts of the city. new orleans is too small, and that is the real kind of worrying part to me. it is really too small to be so vulcanized when it comes to giving resources, when it comes to best practices will stop i remember i had a personal conversation with a chief of staff of the council president. this was some years ago who literally told me, i just don't think the lower ninth ward, which was a poor working-class african-american neighborhood that was at the center of the storm -- i don't think it is bible. i don't think we should be giving our resources to it. this is a woman who of the pursestrings of the resources of the city. i asked her why. she said, i just don't think so. i said, well, there is no place you been to in the lower ninth ward that you think is viable? she had to admit, in my 40 plus years on this earth, i've never been to the lower ninth ward, a place that is only a few miles away from city hall where she works every day. it is the best of times, it is the worst of times. juan: monique harden, these 10 lookingour thoughts back on the reconstruction efforts that have occurred? >> well, i think what we have done over the last 10 years looking back is it has really sharpen the focus on the human rights issues that are really underlying new orleans, eracially in post-katrina we are living in where we assume billions of dollars -- where we have seen billions of dollars, tax dollars, spent in the name of recovery that have created one of the largest racial disparities that we have had in the history of not just new orleans, but the gulf region. of so it is not a situation figuring out what's the best way to go forward. the problem that we have is there is tension and conflict in the recovery planning. inattention and conflict, you know, is shown in terms of the vulcanized neighborhoods that wendell just described to you. , governorue harden jindal, republican presidential candidate, requesting of president obama not to raise the issue of climate change -- of course, he defined the request and said it anyway. bobby jindal writing a letter to the president saying, "the temptation to stray into climate change politics should be resisted. while you and others may be of the opinion we can legislate away hurricanes with higher taxes, business regulations, and epa power grabs, that is not a view shared by many louisianans. i would ask you to respect this important time of remembrance by not inserting the divisive political agenda of liberal, environmental activism." >> i think governor bobby jindal is pathetic human being. i really do. and i think his letter speaks to just how controlled he is by the oil and gas industry that have taken over governance and policymaking in the resources in the state of louisiana. i mean, just outside the governor's mansion in our state capital, yet one of the largest oil refinery complexes of the united states, and that is owned by exxon mobil oil company. in the section between baton rouge, new orleans, going down to the gulf of mexico, you have over 200 petrochemical facilities in the section along the mississippi river we know as cancer alley. where predominately african-american communities bear the brunt of the pollution. where living on the front lines of the cause and effects of climate change. and because we love the places we call home, in new orleans and surrounding areas, we are fighting for changes in terms of how we can cut pollution in order to not only protect us from harmful chemicals that can cause asthma and cancer, but also from those very same smokestacks and pipelines we are seeing the emission of global warming, greenhouse gas emissions that is warming the planet. in creating as a result of that, stronger hurricanes that we are on the front lines of as well. so dealing with the recovery and disaster response -- these are all one peas. so to talk about the recovery of new orleans without talking about climate change would be like talking about the state of louisiana without mentioning new orleans. it is all one piece. amy: this is what president obama said. >> making our communities more resilient is going to be increasingly important because we are going to see more extreme weather events as a result of climate change. deeper droughts, deadlier storms.s, stronger that is why in addition to things like new and better levees, we have also been investing in restoring wetlands and other natural systems that are just as critical for storm protection. juan: i would like to ask gary rivlin, your new book, you spent a long time with "the new york times" covering the aftermath of katrina. your thoughts now in this tenure commemoration and -- 10 year commemoration some people you focused on in your book? >> it was not any glop or two to do storm. if you were a blackcomb wonder in new orleans, you are more than three more times likely to have a flooded home than if you are a white homeowner. it is not been an equal opportunity recovery. you can look at lakeview, prosperous white community that was completely flooded. 10 years later, it is 100% back. you look at new orleans used, a black professional class, middle class neighborhood, 10 years later, maybe 80% back. you look at seventh ward, black working-class neighborhood, 50%, 60% back. the great shame of it is, it is based on many factors -- lack of wealth and the black committed to versus white, but also based on policy. there are policies put in place that got in the way of the recovery that made for an unequal recovery. new orleans today has the second-highest rate -- second-highest cap between rich and poor of any other city but one. it is not accidental. it was pointed out in the are 2000, the black middle-class family was making $30,000. 13 years later, 20 13, that same family is making $25,000, making less money today. amy: we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion. we're speaking with gary rivlin, former "new york times" writer. wendell pierce is also with us, the famous actor, also author. his new book is "the wind in the , reeds: a storm, a play, and the city that would not be broken." attorney withrden the new orleans-based advocates for environmental human rights. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: louis armstrong. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. as we spend the hour on this 10th anniversary of hurricane katrina and looking at new orleans. let's turn back to some of the voices of new orleans residents who sought refuge at the superdome and convention center after the storm. help! help! help1 ! help! help! >> people just walking past us. >> got asthma, sick. >> no food, no water, no nothg. whaver weave, we've been taking. that is still the way to provide. >> food right here. right here. >> hey1 >> look, right here. look. they won't give us nothing. we ain't tricking no ice water. nothing. >> nobody in charge. nobody. some of the needs to come take charge and put organization and get these people to safety, to get them clothes, the basics, things they need to live from about low this is not income, about rich people, poor people, it is about people. nobody wants to hurt anybody in the city. nobody wants to hurt these people that have these businesses. >> a little air and food and water for god sakes. that is it. juan: these are some of the voices of new leans residents in the days after the storm 10 years ago. and we are joined by three guests, monique harden of advocates for environmental human rights, gary rivlin author of "katrina after the storm" and wendell pierce, after an author of "the wind in the reeds: a storm, a play, and the city that would not be broken." gary rivlin, i would like to start with you on this segment. segregation. one of the most astonishing things that occurred in the weeks after the storm was the decision of then governor kathleen blanco to close the entire public school system and reopen a recovery authority school system. can you talk about what happened to the schools, the privatization, the creation of all of these charter schools in new orleans and what has been the result 10 years later? "the makes me think of shock doctrine" by gnomic line, e oortunity tt a daster presents. the governor had wanted to take over many of the local schools in new orleans prior to katrina and she had taken over a few of the worst performing schools. katrina happened and within two months, the state had taken over virtually every public school in new orleans. the real problem is that for years, for 6, 7 years, it was chaos. here are people who were displaced. they are struggling to come home. they just want a sense of place, sense of home. there are no neighborhood schools anymore. people would sign up for a charter school and it would be closed a year or two later and they would have to find another. caret after parent told me the story of their child at a bus stop at 6:00 a.m. in the dark to take two buses to get to their school every day. it was chaos. it was cherry picking. nowadays we all know schools are measured by how high their scores are. so especially early on, it has gotten a little better, but they would refuse some students. they wanted to improve numbers. there was a lawsuit that the schools were not doing their duty of taking care of the special needs students. it was settled a year or two ago. seemingly, does gotten better. it is like a generation of kids, 8, 10, 12 years old at the time of katrina, they see the government doesn't care about them, their scattered to the wind. some of them under gunpoint. people were being brought on planes, buses with armed wereers as if they prisoners. since some were off without being told where they were going. months orembodied for years. they come back to chaos. there are traumatized kids in this traumatized system. amy: i want to put this question to wendell pierce. it was a piece that appeared in chicago by an editorial board member of the chicago tribune. christa was or is mccrery. she wrote a piece about chicago plus financial crisis titled "in chicago, wishing for hurricane katrina." she wrote -- she later apologized for offending the city of new orleans. wendell pierce, you are a new orleans native. your parents are from new orleans. your grandparents are from new orleans. can you respond to this? and also talk about the struggle for who has made it in the last 10 years in new orleans and who hasn't. what communities have thrived and the fact that 100,000 african-american nor lenny and's are no longer -- new orleaneans are no longer in new orleans. >> first of all, i found that editorial so offeive. i called it blasphemous to evil for someone to wish for a disaster that killed over 1800 cleanse theiry to city of some sort of political policies that she disagreed with. not only was the writer offensive and owed the city and all of those who lost relatives 10 years ago an apology, but i can't believe the chicago tribune editorial board allowed it to go into print. that was really offensive. doubling back on what gary was saying about the education system, i want you to remember that the united teachers of new orleans, the union that my mother was a part of all of her life, her 40 years of teaching in the school system, was one of the largest unions and most powerful unions in the state of louisiana. it was predominately african-american and women. when the floodwaters were still rising in new orleans, the first official -- one of the first official acts the governor did was to fire all of the teachers. it wasn't by happenstance, it was by design. use all be political manipulations -- you saw the political minute relations. we should not let the education reform that is happening in new orleans go unchallenged because just in october of last year, the institute at tulane that put out a study and released data on the progress of the charter school systems, actually had to admit they cooked the books, that they changed the data to make sure it looked better. because what is happening is a raid. a raid of the treasury, of the money set aside for public education to be given to private companies, private copies in education. they are changing the status quo to make sure they keep their charters, to make sure they keep the flow of money coming into the corporations. remember, the first rule of law in a business or corporation is to make a profit. the only way you make a profit if you are charter school is to keep that charter. the only way you keep that charter is to make sure you give the appearance you are not failing. they are leaving a lot of people and a lot of kids on the way -- on the side. in a worseaving them position than they were before. if you don't go to the most needy children in your society and help them, as gary was saying before, the disabled and special needs of special education kids were not having any of their needs met because it is not required in so many of the charters to even have that sort of item in your education system. development park, committed to corporation where residents initiated her own reconstruction. as we got property sold back an hour community upon to train park so we could put them back into commerce. we're restricted to only selling to low income. 80% average median income and below. i have no problem with bringing in low income people to the community. that is how my parents got a chance at first getting their first home in the 1950's. the what is happening is to make sure that you displace people who have been forced out of public housing and have only certain areas that they can have access to homes. because public housing, only one third public housing anymore and the other two thirds is now market rate. it has taken all 10 years to rebuild those public housing. i call a displacement by delay. it took so long for is to even reconstitute public housing in new orleans, that 10 years -- if somebody hasn't placed roots in alanna or texas or wherever they were displaced two, the likelihood of them coming back is very small. it is by design, by policy. i say in my book, grandparents always taught us there those who don't have your best interest at heart. there are people in positions of power and policy makers who don't have all the city's best interest at heart. and their constituting policy and taking actions to make sure that only certain communities are coming back another communities are suffering. juan: i want to follow-up on that in terms of your family in particular. your parents, the struggles that they had to get some kind of a -- of assistance with the insurance companies, the federal government. could you bring that home to your own family? >> i remember the greatest crime that ever happened, i think, was 10 years ago when none of the large insurance companies honored the homeowners policies. my carrots paid allstate for 50 years and they moved into part-time park in 1955 -- pot to train park in 1955, up to the day they evacuated and we're still laying after the flood. for those 50 years of premiums, they received $400. they said, that is all we are going to pay. there was a class-action lawsuit years later that everyone participated in to try to get some sort of mediation. suit.t the class-action all of those insurance companies that sold insurance to my parents for years saying, you will be made whole, have some flood insurance and along with her homeowners insurance, when you put them together, you will be made whole. they only gave them $400 after 50 years of paying premiums. amy: what insurance company? >> allstate. we were in good hands, all right, is just that those hands were squeezing my parents that can -- necks. >> can i say something on the insurance? >> in 2005 am a katrina, the most expensive disaster in u.s. history, according to the bloomberg wire service, record profits for the insurance company that year. i think mr. pierce just told us why. amy: monique harden, where were you 10 years ago? and talk about the stories of those who were at least able to fend for themselves. my family and i, we evacuated what we felt would be three days in birmingham alabama, the nearest place on early saturday morning that had hotel rooms available. between new orleans, jackson, all of the hotels -- there were no vacancies. we drove to birmingham and wound up living there for a couple of months after the storm. i guess the thing for me that i will never forget as long as i live is what it feels like to be like to not know whether or not you can come back home again. and how infuriating it is to know that the decision on whether or not you can go back to the place that you called home, the place that is a part of who you are -- we don't live in new orleans, we are new orleans -- can be decided at the whim of someone you don't know who has all of this power as a result of our federal disaster law called the robert stafford emergency assistance act. i think the reason why things are as bad as they are new orleans and why there hasn't been -- why the right to return for many people, why the right to recover has been -- have both been denied is because there is nothing in the law that protects those rights. and human rights very much are inherent in the right to be able to find your place, live and raise families or make connections and build community. that is all tied to what it means to live with dignity, human dignity. and not having that and being able to have -- in a situation where you need help the most and you are the most neediest when there's so much devastation around you, you're in a situation where you are not with the people that you know and you are away from your home is really -- we are seeing the repercussions of that 10 years later with over 100,000 people who are still not back. and for those who are, still living in conditions of displacement. i guess -- the thing that is really galling is that the plan -- the discretionary authority under the stafford act, you can do really wonderful things in terms of rebuilding a community after a disaster, ensuring that people have the ability to return and recover and are part of that decision-making and rebuilding process. you can also make really .orrific, unjust decisions and we are living with that right now. and the decision was to make new orleans whiter and less poor. and what does that look like for majority african-american city or african-american culture and arts and heritage is very much -- very present and has made the city very vibrant. you know, since there was a new orleans. -- having that taken away is it creates this really serious human rights crisis that needs correction. if we continue to send this message of recovery and rebuilding to the world and to the rest of the nation, we are dooming people to live with this kind of scenario after a disaster. forso there is a need corrective action in terms of ensuring that people are able to recover. as we move forward and out of this 10 year cycle and into the years ahead, that needs to be the focus, that recovery hasn't happened, that the right to recovery needs to happen. and we should not be spending billions of dollars and giving it to people who want to make a city that is majority african-american to be a city that is -- would have fewer african-americans and fewer poor people. amy: we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion, monique harden with advocates for environmental human right, new orleans based attorney. gary rivlin is an author and actor wendell pierce is also an author, his new book, "the wind in the reeds: a storm, a play, and the city that would not be broken." we will be back with all of them after the break. ♪ [music break] amy: known as the sole queen of new orleans. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. ,ur guests are monique harden environment and human rights lawyer in new orleans, gary :ivlin, author of "katrina after the flood" an author and actor wendell pierce, "the wind in the reeds: a storm, a play, and the city that would not be broken." juan: i want to go back to an intimate moment after hurricane katrina when kanye west spoke out against president bush on the concert for hurricane relief . he was appearing alongside michael myers. breach of three levees protecting new orleans, the landscape of the city has changed dramatically, tragically, and perhaps the reversibly. there is now over 25 feet of water were there was once city streets and thriving neighborhoods. >> i hate the way they portray us in the media. we see a black family is says, they are looting. we use the white family in a says, looking for food. you know it has been five days because most of the people are black and even for me to complain about a would be hypocrite because i've tried to turn away from the tv because it is too hard to watch, i've even givingopping before even a donation. i'm calling my business manager right now to seek what is the biggest amount i can give and just to imagine if i was down there and those are my people down there, so anybody that was to do anything that we can help with the setup the way america set up to help, the poor, the black people, the less well-off as low as possible -- i mean, the red cross is doing everything they can. we already realize a lot of the people that could help our at war right now fighting another way, and they have given the permission to go down and shoot us. >> the lasting damage the survivors will to rebuild and remain in the area. the destruction of this bit of the people of southern louisiana and mississippi may end up being the most tragic loss of all. >> george bush doesn't care about black people. juan: that was kanye west. this is president bush who later wrote in his memoir that this moment was an all-time low of his presidency. he spoke about it in the 2010 interview with matt lauer. >> i appreciate then, i don't appreciate it now. it is one thing to say i don't appreciate the way he handled his business. it is another thing to say the man is a racist. i resent it. it is not true. it is one of the most disgusting moments of my presidency. >> i faced a lot of criticism. i did not like hearing people claim i lied. but to suggest i was racist because of the response to katrina represented an all-time low. >> i still feel that way is you read those words. i felt them when i heard them and what i wrote them and i felt them when i'm listening to them >>. you said you told laura it was the worst moment of your presidency. i wonder if some people are going to read that and they might give you some heat for that. >> i don't care. >> you're not saying the worst moment in your presidency was watching the misery and louisiana, you're saying it was when some and insulted you. >> and also make it clear the misery of louisiana affected me deeply as well. there is a lot of tough moments in the book. it is a disgusting moment, pure and simple. juan: that was president george w. bush in 2010. monique harden, your thoughts as you hear those clips? me, i think itor is important people understand that this is the same president that adopted within the state department a policy of protecting human rights when people are displaced by a disaster in foreign countries. with the understanding that if you don't ensure that they have the right to return, the right to recover, that destabilizing effect of displacement can create serious setbacks that could last several generations into the future. and you can go from destabilized people, to destabilized communities and regions where the displacement occurs. to do that in the year before hurricane katrina and the to turn around and do the complete opposite, ignore the need for evacuation, ignore the need for preparation, ignore the tremendous need for recovery tha's equitable and just and protect human rights, is part of his legacy and something that he created. i mean, when you look at the federal law, all of the decisions come from the president. once something is declared as a national disaster, this law says all decisions and the decision to act or not to act are entirely discretionary and immune from lawsuits. and this is how he chose to exercise that power, to let people wait and suffer in flooded cities, on rooftops, and convention centers and the superdome without adequate support and services. to evacuate families, parents without children in a really inhumane and harsh condition. and to set about this conservative recovery agenda caused displacement of so many people, african-americans in particular, from new orleans and the gulf region and put money in the hands of folks who are not in need of recovery but are just profiting from the disaster. he did all of that. , if you-wendell pierce could respond. where were you when you heard what conway west said? and you talk about your parents being among the first to live in ponta train, and african-american suburb in new orleans, but your history goes way back, grants, great-grandparents, of brief biography of your family and its connection to new orleans. of st.s in the middle james parish where we rode out the storm. we were without power. we were at an uncle's home. and i did not see kanye's expression on television until later on. but getting back to what the president said, president bush said, that he was disgusted. i was truly disgusted. the 82nd airborne can be anywhere and 48 hours in the world and there in georgia, just a couple of miles away from new orleans. i was disgusted when i watched the president of the united states fly over the disaster that was happening in new orleans rather than come there. in 1965 during betsy, when i was a little boy, another devastating hurricane, lbj came down to the lower ninth with a , waiting to the water saying, "i am your president. i am here. come out. we're here to do something for you." and the stark contrast of showednt who just -- neglect and to say it wasn't about race, i'm sure -- i kept saying to people who finally got in touch with me in the middle of the night, and i would tell them, we are in great need down here. they kept telling me, we are watching it on television. i said, you can't be telling me you're watching it on television because there would be some response. and to find out once i got out of louisiana, to see that it was something that was broadcast around the world live in oc peop we saw the convention center tried to walk out of the city, met on the other side of the bridge by racist cops who shot and the crowd over their heads saying, go back, we don't want you to come into our community -- a white suburban neighborhood and city just across the bridge -- i will never forget that. i will never forget how people responded to people of color. if those had been white american citizens, you would have seen a more immediate response. marina that if in the section of san francisco after latearthquake in the 1980's that people would have sat back and done nothing -- they knew it was one of the most chair she never puts in america and one of the most cherished and profitable cities in america, so they responded. it was all about race. the lack of attention, the fact -- you saw these images of people in need. parents' ck to how my generation created pontchartrain park, the neighborhood i grew up in, and came out of that same sort of racist neglect during jim crow, you can really go to the park only one day of the week if you were black and that was wednesday's, negroes day. pontchartrain park was in response to that. the advocacy of the civil rights movement, so we could have access to this post-world war ii suburbia that was happening after the war. my father who fought in world war ii came back into advantage of the g.i. bill and created pontchartrain park. a golf course, 1000 homes were they would have access to what was that suburbia that was happening in america. we were in some of the deepest part of the flooding in which it upon ourselves to initiate our own redevelopment. resident initiated. pontchartrain work redevelopment corporation. now we have these homes and trying to bring people back. we are restricted by those who don't have our best interest at heart because we turned away people with cash saying, here we are and want to buy home in your community, come back -- just like you, window, heard the call. this joshua generation, honoring that moses generation i gave is a great foundation, great place to grow up in. we have to turn away people with cash because of these policies that are restricting us from selling to any sort of middle class or working class person who wants to come because they are using our redevelopment to displace all of those from public housing. so we are restricted only taken those who are in need from public housing as they take back and reclaim the center of the city and other parts of the city that have public housing that they want. i call it the new black because two thirds of it since empty at market rate really have one third that is public housing. of see over the course generation and generation and generation, racist policies that are not in the best interest of tammy to these that are doing everything possible to thrive on their own. so you have to be ever vigilant from my grandparents generation were people were not writers coming and burning cars in the black community -- night writers coming and burning cars and the black community, to my parents generation who brought us up in pontchartrain park and now as we mark this 10 year anniversary of katrina, the most profound thing about this commemoration is the fact we have another window of opportunity to get it right. and while some people have said that i am a voice of cynicism, that i'm not being a celebratory as everyone else, you're absolutely right. i choose to look at what is going wrong and saying, we have an opportunity now to attack those issues and those policies that are going to have a negative impact, and let's try to bring back the people who want to come back home, that 100,000 displaced new orleaneans who love new orleans. matron, as culture an actor, to know that most of the culture you're familiar with in new orleans comes from that oppression and is known around the world -- second lines were because black committees were redlined by insurance companies, so we put together own social aid and pleasure clubs. the social aid was to make sure we polled -- pooled our money's to take care of ourselves. that is the thing i want to remember the most. the legacy of culture that came before, the fighting for those who don't have her best interest at heart. amy: wendell pierce, thank you for being with us, "the wind in the reeds: a storm, a play, and the city that would not be broken." gary rivlin and monique harden, thanks so much for being with us. that does it for the broadcast. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> funding for christina cooks is provided by astavita, manufacturers of skin defense complex, designed to help protect skin from free radicals with astareal astaxanthin and tocotrienol. astavita skin defense complex: more than skin deep. additional funding provided by kuhn rikon, manufacturers of the swiss-made duromatic pressure cooker. employing energy efficiency in the kitchen to help take the pressure off of cooking and cooks in creating naturally prepared meals. and by ecover, where the environment starts in your home. ecover household cleaning and laundry products clean the dirty clothes hamper, the bathroom, and the kitchen sink ecologically. ecover: the power of nature. additional funding provided by martinelli's gold medal apple juice and sparkling cider. all-natural, pure juice from u.s.-grown fresh apples, not fromce

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