[Oe List ...] Lest we get too sentimental about the Gipper

[David Dunn]

On 6/29/04 6:24 PM, "Janice & Abe Ulangca" <aulangca at stny.rr.com> wrote:

> has everyone seen Fahrenheit 9-11?

I got in on an advance showing of Fahrenheit 9/11 sponsored by two local
grassroots media advocacy groups in cooperation with MoveOn.org last
Thursday evening.

It's a must see and re-raised for me the question of 'awakenment' in the
current political drama.

Several bits of data. Michael Moore, ever the showman and provocateur is
much more in the background. Events and people speak for themselves. While
critics accurately point out some 'gratuitous juxtapositions' (sorry)
intended to create dramatic effect even without actual cause and effect, I
don't consider this a basis for discounting the film. While people with a
vested interest in the Bush administration or our current foreign policy
will blow off the film and discount its world view and accuracy, the film
does, to the best of my knowledge, accurately tell what has happened in the
last several years.

And this brings me to my main insight about this whole matter of choosing an
effective American foreign policy. Fahrenheit 9/11 tells what I consider a
true STORY about the EVENTS of the last several years. Whatever one may
think about the details of presentation, the thrust of the story is to tell
the truth. This movie gives an alternative view of the world and the events
of the last several years than presented by the American media.

To me this means that this film is a wake up call about the state of US
foreign policy and the state of the US journalistic establishment. This
sounds really close to awakenment to my ears. The awakenment is this film is
handled by a bereaved mother of a dead soldier, the disillusioned Marine (I
believe) who refuses to return to Iraq and states why, and the several
Congress persons who give Moore a 'you're kidding' look when he suggests
that they urge their children to fight in Iraq. Critics called this
contrived. I call it an imaginal way of pointing out that wars are waged by
poor, minority, relatively desperate young people on behalf of wealthy old
white men.

Thank God for our European colleagues, the BBC, the International Herald
Tribune, the Economist and the Guardian.

First footnote. Did you ever see news footage of the black members of
Congress trying to get the floor to object to the policy of making war on
Iraq? I did not. Fahrenheit 9/11 shows one black congressman or
congresswoman after another being denied the floor to speak out against a
foreign policy and military strategy that is about to disproportionately
impact their constituencies.

Second footnote. I handed out MoveOnPAC.org flyers and attended a house
party with a conference call and web feed with Michael Moore last night.
MoveOn.org is shining in my book as an innovative and effective organizer of
opposition to the Republican party and the Bush administration. The house
party I attended was within walking distance from Burna's and my home in
Central Denver.

Keep track of the MoveOn.org and MoveOnPAC.org websites and their strategies
for grassroots political organizing.

David Dunn