[Dialogue] Fwd: A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush fromMichael ...

[KroegerD@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/11/2005 3:27:14 AM Central Daylight Time,  
maillist at michaelmoore.com writes:

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 widow 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
_www.michaelmoore.com_ (http://www.michaelmoore.com/) 
_mmflint at aol.com_ (mailto:mmflint at aol.com) 


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