Michael Moore's Sicko Tells The Truth

Special Edition #95b — July 10, 2007

Kidney Cancer In Canada

Last Friday I visited a dear old friend from High School in a Toronto hospital. He had his cancerous kidney removed the day before. He was in great shape, all things considering, and it looks like this will be a one-time deal since the surgery was a success, and the tumor a well-contained one.

He had laproscopic surgery, which is far less invasive than the "slash and grab" surgery he also could have chosen. And there is that word "chosen." Yes, he had a choice. Living in a free country, he had the freedom to choose which free medical procedure he wanted, thanks to the great medical system that was put into place long ago in Canada by the courage of one politician, Tommy Douglas, and thereafter supported by the will of the people.

Perhaps someday the United States will have such a unique hero to celebrate. For now, it's mostly the "villains" who still seem to be running the village and its people. This was made more evident to me when I went to see Michael Moore's new documentary, Sicko, on the following day.

A Sick Society

At the end of the movie I asked my friend if she "enjoyed" the film, and she said "Are you kidding? Didn't you hear me blubbering all the way through it?" Yes, she'd been mopping her face with both wrists and had obviously found this documentary as moving as I did. What we enjoyed was seeing a depiction of the real world, as tragic as it was, rather than another superhero in tights protecting the status quo from "evil."

This film showed us the face of evil, and it wasn't wearing a ski mask (or a turban!), it was wearing a suit, and ruling over the US Government and its people. It was that old nemesis, Greed, and its army of stoic mental stances, like apathy and denial, which are needed to enforce its absolute rule. It's an occupation of our sanity that needs to be healed, without profit. This film begs the question: How Do We Heal A Sick Society If No One Can Afford It? Least of all, the corporations who are making their money from everyone else's suffering.

Is Evidence Still Admissible In Court?

If you want to know what Michael Moore's Sicko is about, go see it. Don't let others tell you or worse, tell others what it's about before you've seen it. That would be like invading Iraq for security reasons without evidence of a threat.

I have encountered some who want to tell me and everyone else what Michael Moore and his work are all about. They get their facts by reading what others have written about him. Borrowing our opinions is not only undemocratic but it's that kind of ill-informed, reflexive thinking that created not only the destruction of 9/11, but all the brutality and oppression that has occurred in its name ever since. Where would war be without brainwashing?

Since Moore's film depicts a social illness within the USA, if you are an American, please don't have your thoughts created for you by those who need your complicity and ignorance to buy their yachts. Cultural brainwashing has caused some to go around detonating bombs for Al Quaida (the IRA, Jesus, or whatever their cause) while others go around destroying the truth for those whose profits and lifestyles it will harm. In this case, the less people who see Sicko, the more likely that the USA will remain number 37 in the world when it comes to looking after its own people's health. And if you don't have your health, as they say, then you have nothing, especially if you're dead. And death, in this case, is also a choice. Let the people of the United States choose life, as so many of its Republicans and Centrist Democrats claim to do.

Physician, heal thyself. The bringers of freedom and democracy must study and learn about them, first hand. Please, go see this film. It is not about those without health insurance. It only exposes the corporate and governmental apathy that are the reality for insured Americans. And, most eye-opening of all, the film offers us a view into the healthcare systems of other cultures. Some, like Cuba and France, have been "demonized" by moral judgments which this film may in part overturn. But you must decide. Look at the evidence. Then judge for yourself. And if you don't use your freedom to choose, you will lose it.

It's Time For Another Reality Check

I just finished creating and uploading my new Reality Check Screensaver. You can find it here: Realitycheckers.com/giftshop/. The reason I mention the screensaver is because I created some new reality checks for it and this one helps frame the USA issue:

Is freedom a threat to democracy,
or just to those who are trying to patent it?

Doesn't that say it all? We have lost so much in the years since George Bush seized power via the Republican judicial system. One would hope that at the very least, for a country that claims to be "number one" that the people in charge of keeping it on the podium would do whatever was necessary to win. And by winning, I mean taking care of its own people.

And until that happens, I'm glad that I don't "have to" live there. I love the people of the United States, and I love the beauty of the land upon which they live. I have travelled throughout that country extensively and so I am a witness, not just a bystander. I even "feel" somewhat American.

But the one thing that I don't like, which is boldly stated by its corporate rulers, is that "the business of America is business." That means that if your death is more profitable than your continued life, then all hail the shareholders, and let's give our CEO another raise.

Healing should be about the wound. Let's define it. And then, let's give it attention and care.

To your health,
Roland Kriewaldt


Subscribe to free newsletter
Search Realitycheckers.com