Linked here is who a group of Louisiana AP Government Students are battling for their right to free speech:
From the "Teaching the Levees.org" blog here is the story of the PSA Students ran and posted on YouTube and Levees.org that has been taken down (or has it?) by a "cease and desist" letter written by lawyers for the Army Corps of Engineers.
_______________
"Why Levees.org removed PSA from YouTube"
Levees.Org was served an order to Cease and Desist from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) on November 10, 2007. We were ordered to remove our funny student-made Public Service Announcement (PSA) from YouTube. If we refused, the ASCE promised “appropriate legal action.”
We stand behind every word of our PSA. But had we fired back with a rejection of the Cease and Desist, ASCE would likely have sued Levees.org not in Louisiana, but rather in Virginia where they are based. In that forum, it would have been difficult and expensive to find legal representation. Levees.Org does not possibly have the personnel, the resources nor the scope to take on a legal battle with a large powerful organization such as the ASCE.
Further, Levees.Org in no way wanted to bring harm to Newman school who was copied on the Cease and Desist.
So we removed our PSA video from YouTube late Tuesday night Nov 13, when the webmaster, my 17 year old son returned home from his State Cross Country meet.
Sandy Rosenthal, Exec Director, Levees.Org
_______________
By the way, cease and desist is is a legal term used primarily in the United States [citation needed] which essentially means "to halt" or "to end" an action ("cease") and to refrain from doing it again in the future ("desist"). The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization.
The term is used in two different contexts. A cease-and-desist order can be issued by a judge or government authority, and has a well-defined legal meaning. In contrast, a cease-and-desist letter can be sent by anyone, although typically they are drafted by a lawyer.
Full blogging coverage of the fansinating story of the power of students and the constitutional right to get the words out can be found here:
http://www.teachingthelevees.org/
6 comments:
Because we can't access the PSA in question, I can't pass a final judgement on the Army Corps of Engineers or American Society of Civil Engineers. Here's my overall opinion: Hurricane Katrina saw utter failure at ALL levels of government. In part, it's New Orleans' fault for not maintaining their levees when they knew they averaged six feet BELOW sea level. Anyway, as long as the PSA wasn't ripping into the engineers themselves (such as calling them gomers or what have you), the Cease and Desist order is not justified. I wouldn't mind seeing a 9/11-style investigation myself. It might even nail somebody who has stayed under the radar!
You can access the PSA if youare on your home computer. It's just the WV blocking system that is stopping it at school.
AP Government students comments about their PSA, the fallout, free speech and the call for an 8/29 Commission are posted at:
www.teachingthelevees.org
It's a must read.
Garrett, you raise some good points, however I think you put too much blame on New Orleans and not enough blame on the federal organizations at fault. Yes, New Orleans should have maintained levees, knowing that they were so inadequate but the US Army Corps of Engineers had a much better picture of the problem. They even admitted that "faulty design specifications, incomplete sections and substandard construction of levee segments, not a hurricane was the primary cause of the flooding in the New Orleans". Yes, everyone is at fault, but from what I have read, the federal government really messed up. I'm not sure New Orleans even had the resources to essentially rebuild their levees to make them adequate.
And I definately agree that as long as engineers were not personally attacked, the Cease and Desist Order is completely unjustified. I would also love to read a copy of the 8/29 report if it is ever written
In my opinion, everybody is to blame because they all had notifications about the intensity of the hurricane before it struck. Nagan should have arranged for beds, food, water, and medication inside the super dome because he knew that some people will not leave and will come there. He also should have talked with the governor to make arrangements before hand for additional resources like the coast guard and National Guard to help out in the relief process. He did not do all of this because of past political animosity. As for the governor, it is her responsibility to provide as many resources to the mayor as possible. She should have allocated many resources as well as contacted other states for help as soon as the hurricane struck. Instead, she was bickering with Nagan over what their individual responsibly was. Finally, President Bush and FEMA should also be blamed because they did not respond quickly and efficiently. This is the richest and most powerful nation in the world. President Bush should have put his egotistical attitude aside and showed some compassion toward the victims instead of seeing them as poverty ridden, black, and undeserving of resources (and yes this is what many Washington insiders described the White House’s attitude). If I was president when this happened, I would have completely ignored the governor and the mayor because they were road blocks to the relief efforts. I would have fired the FEMA director on the spot and release the military to control the situation and aid in the relief effort. Also, I would have opened up many resources and delegate the Army Corp or Engineers to start immediate construction on the levees to further insure that this would never happen again. People need to understand that federalism is not the end all be all because it was one of the leading factors in the devastating situation of New Orleans. It not only delayed relief but created the political and economic disaster.
On another note, relief efforts for disasters should never be political. It drives me mad when people and politicians bring up the “conservative and liberal” aspects to relief efforts. We have been through this already under President Hoover during the Great Depression when he did almost nothing to help the country. One specific event was when he did absolutely nothing when floods destroyed many farms and the farmers were completely bankrupt. Politics should be left in legislation and governmental institutions, not relief efforts.
I think it is quite amusing that the Army Corps of Engineers is spending $137 million dollars for aquatic ecostructure reconsturction in the Everglades, yet only 27 million to repare levees that just cost over a thousand people their lives. The fault of leeves is not all on the Army Corps but I would think that this would be much higher on their priority scale. I guess New Orleans will just have to wait, since it seems we have fish to save!
Jenny
Post a Comment