Fahrenheit 9/11

In support of Michael Moore's Courageous Documentary

by Roland Kriewaldt

While watching Michael Moore's documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, I was both entertained and disgusted. The film begins by reminding us how the 2000 election was stolen by questionable voting procedures, thus opening the door for George W Bush's legacy of lies, looting and running America's reputation into the ground.

Moore's film is branded as "propoganda" by hardened right wing conservatives. This is either because they are embarrassed by the truth, or they can't afford to have honesty derail their aspirations in mid career. Loyalty means everything if you want your share of the pie. "You're either with us, or against us!" Every cult leader benefits from unquestioning loyalty, including Charlie Manson, Jim Jones and Osama Bin Laden. Hitler said it was a good thing for tyrannts like him that people would rather not think for themselves. Moore doesn't support tyrannts. He's against terrorism, especially when it shows up in his own government.

Moore is an articulate freethinker who has also made some factual errors in the past. It's unavoidable when making a documentary that relies upon data collected from many varied sources. Yet it's ironic that right wing propogandists jumped on Moore's faulty facts yet have failed to do so for those faulty facts, if not outright lies, that the Bush administration used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Why go after Moore but not Bush? Loyalty? Denial? Ignorance? Game strategy? No matter the excuse, it's still hypocrisy; is that an ideal worth fighting for?

Yet if truth and facts do matter, then Fahrenheit 9/11 offers far more convicting evidence than what I suspect was required to southern fry death row inmates during Bush's Texas governorship.

Evidence isn't "propoganda" just as truth isn't slander. Moore's film educates us to stop voting for crooks. He is helping to prevent Bush from committing future crimes against Americans, and humanity. Bush needs to be in Iraq or Afghanistan, sitting in the sand with a rifle, fighting the evil he preaches exists all around him. Instead, he gets richer returning favours, sending innocent young people to their deaths so that another country won't have to be without Walmart, McDonalds...or Haliburton.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a testament that history will repeat itself until rich, arrogant, self-serving politicians stop masquerading as defenders of the public good and the public stops buying their facade. To make this point, the camera follows two military recruiters who target unemployed youth in poor neighbourhoods to join the US military (and become cannon fodder in Iraq, obviously). Moore then turns the tables, offering unsuspecting congressmen military pamphlets for their sons to join the fight - since they voted to send other people's kids off to war. As it turns out, only one congressman had a son in the military, or in Iraq. See the problem? Moore does.

Every election we tolerate lies, acting as though we'd never heard them before. And then we act surprised when our appointed representatives in government renege on promises they made, despite swearing on the bible and promising to be better than the last guy. But words are cheap and although soothing, only actions are the true yardstick of a person's character and intentions. So let's try this one on for size:

Let's recall that small window of time, post 9/11, when there was a unanimous outpouring of sympathy for Americans, even from adversarial nations. The world was sad, but there was a feeling of love as everyone carried the emotional burden of that event. But under Bush's leadership that energy was corrupted, negated and then transformed into a global anti-American sentiment.

Let's remember that people already suspect politicians of greed and corruption. How did Haliburton, a company formerly run by vice president, Dick Cheney, position itself to exploit the largest economic reward for a war Cheney helped to create? Have we reached a point where public officials can wave their exploits right in our faces and still get away with them? Such bravado can't go unpunished if it is proven true. And Haliburton was also found to have overcharged the Pentagon $75 million in gasoline expenses. Was it an honest mistake, or the one scam that got busted? We assume people go to prison for such activities, but there seems to be no accountability once you are sitting at the top of the heap. Perhaps these are the perks of political office: free access to the country's bank accounts. Tell all your friends!

This madness must stop. And if we turn away and don't stop it, then we deserve every bitter fruit that falls from that wretched political tree we nurture through our votes and tax dollars.

It's our duty to detox our minds from the real propoganda machine: our governments and the politically-biased media. Michael Moore has crucial information to share with the world, and some are doing their best to make sure that you and I don't have access to it.

Please, watch the movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. Afterward, go and rent "GroundHog Day" with Bill Murray. Watch it and ask yourself if we as a civilization, aren't Bill's character, making the same mistakes, over and over, day after day, until we have no other choice but to do better if we want to progress. But when will that be? Soon, I hope.