[E-rundbrief] Info 286 - Michael Moore: 9/11, New Orleans

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 286: Michael Moore: A Letter to All Who Voted for George 
W. Bush. About 9/11, Homeland Security and the Katrina-flood in New Orleans 
and neighbouring regions and other catastrophs.

Bad Ischl, 11.9.2005

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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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
mmflint at aol.com
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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
     Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
     Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
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