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 what feel you arrogant, self-righteous prick?
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?
I feel like Bill Clinton would have done the same thing and the media would have made it someone elses fault: the governor, the mayor, a senator; the focus of blame would not have been on President Clinton. Polititions appointing cronnies is nothing new. This is why I don't trust politicians.
That's right. Horse shows.
OK, rub it in you little punk. Did you know who was being appointed? Did you write to your senator in protest? We didn't vote for a director fo FEMA, we voted for a commander in chief.
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.
"All due respect?" You don't respect me; you don't know anything about me. As far as you're concerned, I'm some brainwashed moron unable to think outside the FOX news box: trained to react to challenges by waging cultural warfare against the educated elite. President Bush has a lot of things on his table; he didn't know that we were going to have the worst hurricane season in recent history; the last few weren't so bad. He probably thought that signing a supporter wouldn't be such a big deal.
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.
Interesting: you call me names and blame me for the insults.
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?
I don't know.
When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?
I feel secure; I see the increased security in my area. Chertov's probably just another Washington whore.
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?
They don't have to know. They have to listen to the people who do.
Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?
Yes.
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?
I don't
trust the federal government because it is a centralization of power; every inch of power it gets leads to a yard of my rights taken away; every bill which gets passed takes my hard-earned money and gives it to some bum with his hand out: tells me that I have to give the food out of my baby's mouth to some kid in Africa: tells me what to smoke: what to drink. What's next? telling me what to read? I don't hate our government; I just don't trust it.
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?
I don't know about tax cuts for the rich. It might work out if the rich invest in the US, but they probably won't. Do you actually think that I'm rich you arrogant fuck? if I was rich I wouldn't care.
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.
So you are judging my religious beliefs on how I voted: sounds like witch-hunting season to me. I don't know what Jesus said and neither do you. I wonder how many people who voted for President Bush took in and fed their distant neighbors in their hour of need. Does it not count if it does not go through the federal government?
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.
Which country singer?! Dude, he dropped the ball. He's human; he has an imposible job; no one person should have to make all of these decisions. This is a main thread in my argument against the centralization of power. I don't want any one person making all the decisions; I want committee.
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!"
I agree; he wasn't prepared. I didn't vote for him hoping that he would deal smoothly with a natural disaster.
My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?
After all the insults you've thrown my way in this article, you have the balls to even consider calling me 'friend'?!? We're not the 'laughing stock'; we're their excuse for grinding their teeth. Hell yes it bothers me! what's your plan? throw money at it?
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?
There's nothing sacred about it! it is a national holiday. Are you trying to impose a theocracy? You don't even know what happened. I don't honor those who died; I honor their families left behind: those who were on the street showing pictures of their loved ones not knowing what they hoped to accomplish: "I just wanted people to see." I saw; my life will never be the same; they did not 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?
We are not safe. I really feel safe. I'm ready to tackle the problems, but I keep running into assholes like you.
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?
We saved the country from a spiral of turmoil caused by an emotional withdrawl from Iraq. Just because we got into it too quickly without enough planning doesn't mean that we should leave with an equal spasm. What we needed to do between 2004 and 2006 was settle down and stay the course.
I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.
Yours,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com[/quote]
