Any Freepers out there....I would like you to read this letter

[Lochloosa]

and give me your honest answer to the questions raised. I don't think you can do it without blaming Clinton though....



Sunday, September 11th, 2005
A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush from Michael Moore


To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?

How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?

That's right. Horse shows.

I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.

I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.

Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?

When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?

When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?

Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?

Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?

With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?

Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.

That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.

It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the window at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"

My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?

And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?

Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.

Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?

I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?

I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.

Yours,

Michael Moore

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. I read this on his website

and it made me uncomfortable.

Yes, there is truth in it. And Moore is an angry man and it shows. Anger is understandable. Like the way I feel when I tell a student "don't lean back in your chair, you will fall." And he does. And it is bloody. I want to slap him upside his head, but I don't. I help clean up the mess and tell him not to do it again.

IMO, right now the last thing we need to do is turn off possible crossovers. This is the democratic moment of opportunity.

I would have been happier if he had a tone of amnesty: "you screwed up when you voted; we understand; you bought the party line; see the error of your ways and come on over to our side... we will work together and make it right."

It's easy to blame and give in to "told you so's" and much harder work to take a deep breath and look for opportunity.


Because if I were a freeper this would have just pissed me off and entrenched me further into my skewed ideals. We joke about freepers being subhuman but of course they aren't, and they aren't particularly stupid, either. I work with a whole lot of them and respect them professionally and personally. But if I had read somebody with a rep like Moore (angry activist) reaching out to me as a human being..I would really have had to THINK and isn't that the issue?

I thought the tone was just a bit sophomoric and "nanny nanny boo-boo." But then I'm a middle school teacher.

(stepping into flame suit now.)

[Lochloosa]

2. Loading my Flame Thrower...

give me a minute

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. Ohhhhh god..... help me. n/t

[MN ChimpH8R]

4. popcorn time

:popcorn:

[myrna minx]

5. I guess now isn't the time for the "blame game."

:eyes: :sarcasm: We dems should just cower from assigning responsibility for the most heinous catastrophe in American history. :eyes:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. Depends on what we want to achieve.

Blame and revenge feel good. What what do they get you but a nice buzz for a while?

[Hav]

7. .

I actually agree with many of the points you want to make.
But I also believe that this is what Moore actually wanted. It's not that he called them idiots or that the most important thing was gloating. It was about making them think and reconsider.

[HughBeaumont]

8. The problem is though,

that, while the tone of the letter was:

"Are you starting to think that maybe none of what this administration does or continues to do makes any sense at all?"

Freepers will see it as:

"Are you starting to think you're all a buncha freakin' idgits for putting these asshats in office . . . and 'I told you so'?"

Frankly, I think they'll hate Moore . .. just because he's Michael Moore and it doesn't really matter to them if he's trying to reach out. Instead of defending the actions of their president with logical arguments (partially because they CAN'T), they go into bashing anyone who doesn't genuflect to Bush or the corporations that own him.

[TNOE]

9. He says exactly what I want to say

I too would love honest answers from them - but they REFUSE to answer honestly - its all denial and excuses. Michael Moore saying this just gives them the right to completely dismiss it.

I say BRAVO once again to Michael Moore!