Filmmaker, director, writer, and Liberal activist,
Michael Moore took to
his Twitter page last week to give his thoughts on the
Charleston shooting. The acclaimed filmmaker of many award-winning documentaries, including the anti-gun violence,
Bowling For Columbine. tweeted a sentence that put the full scope of Right Wing extremism into its proper place of chronic, historical hypocrisy.
He's one of the most outspoken activists in America. Most people either love Michael Moore, or they hate him. Death threats and assaults have followed him with every 'Don't Go There' issue he tackles - especially over Bush and the Iraq war. He's brave, compassionate, intelligent, brash, poignant, and sometimes very amusing. It's easy to see why many Republicans despise him.
Moore is also a Daily Kos contributor and has been posting on the site since 2004. His profile and articles can be found: HERE. My respect and admiration for Michael Moore was solidified the night he walked onto the 75th Academy Award ceremony stage to pick up an Oscar for, 'Bowling For Columbine,' and then told America what time it was. Before discussing that speech, here are two very short clips from his winning Best Documentary of 2003:
After winning the award, Moore surprised audiences around the world with a fierce statement opposing George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, which was launched only four days earlier. This was at a time when you were considered a traitor if you voiced disdain against the president and/or his decisions on war. Moore didn't care and proceeded with unabashed gusto. The live crowd (some you'll see in the clip below) reacted with a mixture of anger, amusement, boos, bewilderment, shock, happiness and cheers. Here is his 68-second speech on
YouTube video, followed by the transcription: (This is
so good.)
"On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan from Canada, I’d like to thank the Academy for this.
I’ve invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us, and we would like to — they are here — they are here in solidarity with me because we like non-fiction.
We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious President.
We — We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons.
Whether it’s the fiction of duct tape or the fictitious [sic] of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush.
Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you.
And any time you’ve got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much."
For many, the above was one of the most unforgettable anti-Iraq War speeches of the decade. And some of us can remember where we were, and how we reacted when we saw it. Since he had already been recognized for
Bowling For Columbine, Moore decided to use the Oscar platform to shame warmongers. In Michael Moore's tweet above, he shows how absurd it is, that we spend, invade, and kill millions in order to fight terrorists around the world, as in Bush's
War On Terror, yet we have terrorists in our own backyards as dangerous and deadly to Americans as any terrorist across the seas. And we have the power to stop it, but we don't - or we haven't,
yet.
There are a good number of anti-gun violence organizations in this country, including, Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In America and The Coalition To Stop Gun Violence. You can support their efforts by visiting/joining/sharing their work.
Thank you, Michael Moore, for your works of endless courage, integrity, and conviction. We need Moore.
