George W. Bush Museum and Library in Dallas Texas
Updated, Aug 26, 7:00 p.m.
Today, Levees.org kicked off a campaign to draw attention to the George W. Bush Presidential Museum and Library. The facility – which operates on $6 million of taxpayer support every year – barely mentions any federal failures relating to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
The exhibits don’t mention the failed levees built by the Army Corps of Engineers. And the exhibits describe the federal response as one of compassion and heroic rescue.
This is not fair to the taxpayers and doubly not fair to the survivors of the flooding on August 29th. American curators and archivists have a duty to record both the good and the bad.
Levees.org is asking its supporters to sign a letter to the Director of the George W. Bush Museum and Library.
Dear Director of the George W. Bush Museum and Library,
Any historical display on Hurricane Katrina needs to include the fact that in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish the flooding WAS NOT a “natural disaster” it was a engineering failure on a grand scale. The Corps of Engineers failed the citizens of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish by not building the levees as strong as they claimed they where.
One of the reasons for the engineering disaster was the reduction of the Corps of Engineers New Orleans District budget by the George W. Bush administration in 2004 and 2005.