Liberal College Kid

As I’m sure you all know by now I had a piece on Sicko, the new film from Michael Moore, appear on our Blogging Network’s main page: Pajamas Media (PJM). You can read the article here. The comments on the article, however, are far more interesting than my little reaction piece.

PJM has a very noticeable slant in most articles and the vast majority of their blogroll are conservative sites. So, I guess it really shouldn’t surprise anyone that my blatant pro-Moore reaction piece to Sicko was so poorly received. Personally, I think it’s great that it got so many of their reader’s upset. My favorite comment was:

“For the reviewer to accept this movie uncritically only shows his ignorance, prejudice, mental laziness, and utter foolishness. The only debate here is why PJM gave him this forum. Perhaps it’s just so we could point and laugh and teach him a lesson. Personally, I’m not laughing. This review, like Moore, is a disgrace.”

The right only wants to read things that validate their own opinions. I suppose we on the left are guilty of this as well but how can there ever be real dialog if only one side of an issue is ever presented. What’s more, of the 39 comments now up in response to the article, the only ones that support my position are my own. Everyone else, even the two or so who said they were progressives, still either didn’t like Michael Moore or think socialized medicine is the worst thing ever. We are so partisan in this country that people can get all of their news from one sole view point and be contented. We no longer value a dissenting view point and our political dialog is lacking because of it.

I hope we see more articles up on PJM from writers on this site. It’s kind of hard to be the only voice of dissent in a forum like that but at least the position has been presented. And so far only one person has brought up my age as being a negative thing, which is nice.

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Our own JB Goodrich has an article up on Pajamas Media about Michael Moore’s new film Sicko which comes out this Friday. You can read it here: http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/06/liberal_college_kid_on_sicko.php

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Dear Michael Moore,

Thank you. I had the incredible pleasure of seeing your film Sicko on Saturday night and I was blown away. I laughed and cried along with the rest of the crowd, including the outspoken Republican sitting next to me. He had been drug to the film by his liberal girlfriend but by the end of it he told me proudly, “I have a new found respect for Michael Moore.” I think most people, however, will leave with a loss of respect for the American health care industry.

I think perhaps the single most important insight in your film, however, is not necessarily an issue related to healthcare. Rather, I left with the comparison of France and the United States. In France, the government is afraid of the people; in America, the people are afraid of the government. I would like to take this point one step further: because we have a government of the people, Americans are scared of each other. We have been for our entire history. It’s why we live in rural settings and build fences to keep out neighbors. We drive for hours everyday so that we can live in seclusion and still participate in the economy.

Somewhere in all of this, though, we added the idea to our psyche that we should only care about ourselves. That in fact, everything we can do for ourselves is better than things other people do for us. Maybe this is the reason that Americans, particularly on the right, are so against universal healthcare. It seems funny though, doesn’t it? Here’s a party that talks about the value of human life, and yet shows complete disregard for 50 million lives in their own country. Those 50 million of course being the Americans who do not have health insurance.

As you showed in your film, Americans live shorter lives, have a higher infant mortality rate, and are fatter than countries with universal healthcare. As the richest country in the world, I would think we would also want to live the longest. Yet it seems we value the salaries of pharmaceutical companies and HMO’s over our countries health. Private industry I suppose… But wouldn’t it be nice if we treated our fellow Americans as well as the French, Canadians and British treat their citizens? Why should a people’s welfare be a political issue?

Imagine how much better we could make people’s lives. Of course, your film disproves all of the myths about socialized medicine meaning less care, resulting in less pay for healthcare professionals, and having to wait for services. In fact, it seems like there is no reason not to make the switch to socialized medicine other than the fact that the Republicans and some Democrats are in bed with HMO lobbyists. Even Hillary received huge campaign contributions from people who make money by denying sick people medical coverage. To think she was once the champion of the socialized medicine movement here…

I think your film will push this debate on healthcare to become the second most important issue in the 08 election behind only Iraq. And my hope is that just as people have grown to loathe the war and the man that led us into it, so they will come to accept that healthcare should be a human right.  Thanks for your support of Dennis Kucinich and for standing up and doing something about what a mess our country has become.

Thanks Again,

liberalcollegekid

p.s. I thought it was amazing that you paid for the guy from MooreWatch’s insurance.

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I’m not sure why American media outlets haven’t been running this information but I’ve checked the sites I frequent the most and none of them have anything up… yet. In any event, according to Le Monde, Khartoum has agreed to allow a hybrid force of both UN and African Union troops into Darfur to help police the situation. Reactions and updates will be sure to follow.

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Michael Moore, for me, is a hero. His books and movies have been an inspiration to me throughout my college years and I will vehemently defend him against anyone the right can muster up. In fact, had I never seen Bowling for Columbine or read Dude Where’s my Country this website would probably not exist. His work has been monumental, timely, and a great perspective on the flaws of this country. His most recent project is called Sicko and it comes out June 29th, so long as the government doesn’t confiscate it first.

Sicko deals with (from Michael Moore’s website):

“Much of “Sicko” consists of moving testimony from Americans who have suffered at the hands of insurance companies, drug firms and HMOs. That includes a mother whose daughter died because the nearest hospital could not treat her, and a man who was told the cost of reattaching his two severed fingers would be $60,000 for the middle finger and $12,000 for the ring finger.”

Once again, his timing could not be better as health care figures to play probably the second biggest role in the 2008 Presidential election; behind only Iraq.

The film however, has caused quite a stir already not for its content (which will undoubtedly cause more than just a stir) but for the filming process.  More specifically, Moore may be in trouble for where he filmed: in Cuba.  The United States trade embargo with Cuba forbids US citizens from going there without permission and anything Moore purchased there could result in a fine of 1 million dollars per infraction.  You can watch a news clip about that story here.

Sicko opens June 29th, and I hope you will join me in seeing it.  Moore’s documentaries are more than simply movies: they are important, poignant glimpses of our society and we are all better served by seeing them, no matter what side of the aisle we fall on.

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