What Democracy Means

Recently I brought myself around to seeing Michael Moore's controversial documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, for the first time. Released in 2004, a little over a year after the invasion of Iraq, the film examines the first three and a half years of the Bush presidency, beginning with the election controversy in Florida, and moving into September 11, 2001 and its aftermath.

I won't try to say that Moore's account is fair and even-handed, or that there is no liberal bias here. If you want the straight facts to make up your own mind on this issue, then go somewhere else first, or be sure to find an equally conservative source.

That said, this documentary was not necessarily made with the objective of scrupulously reporting all of the facts. It focuses on the facts that support the liberal position, while downplaying those that support the conservative viewpoint. (If you've seen it, did you notice that it features interviews with people opposed to the war, but uses brief soundbites from those who support it?) This movie was made to support a point of view.

However, as I watched, I noticed that there was an entirely separate message that transcended politics. One of Moore's most frequent accusations was that people simply rolled over and allowed the Bush administration to accomplish its agenda unhindered. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the American people as a whole put their trust behind the President, without questioning any of his actions. One scene featured Brittany Spears saying to do just that. The press was accused of not scrutinizing the administration. The Democrats, now well known as the party that wants to leave Iraq as soon as possible, largely supported Bush's initiatives, including the Patriot Act and the Iraq War resolution, without even reading them. Because of this willingness to entrust President Bush with our national security five-plus years ago, we find ourselves in a conflict in Iraq with no visible end, and no clear way to extracting ourselves without further damaging our position. Ladies and gentlemen, don't let this happen again.

I'm not saying you can't support a war, or a politician, or a cause. I'm not saying you can never trust a politician to make the right decision. What I'm trying to say, and what this movie helps to clarify, is that the decision to do so must be made on you own. Don't simply think that having a leader means you no longer have to think about or analyze an issue.

This goes for everyone--liberal, conservative, Socialist, Libertarian, or whatever you happen to be, no matter how much you love your elected officials, don't simply elect them so you don't have to think anymore, because that's not your job as a citizen. We closed our eyes on Bush after 9/11, and this is where we got; it could be so easy to allow this to happen again. When a politician says something, don't nod your head in approval like a brainwashed sheep, think about it. Research the issue, make up your own mind. Tell your politicians to do the same--the Iraq war resolution passed with the support of more than half the Senate Democrats, many of whom now claim that they were opposed to the Iraq war from the beginning (including Hillary Clinton). And yes, the Democrats are as much responsible for Iraq as the Republicans and the Bush administration, seeing as they sat on their hands as the executive branch produced its evidence that al-Qaeda was connected to Iraq, and that Saddam Hussein had and could use weapons of mass destruction.

America is the oldest democratic nation in the world, and democracy is based on the ability of the citizens to partake in the political process, and blindly trusting an elected official is simply not consistent with partaking. So my message to you, America, is to do your job as Americans, and join in the political process. Vote if you are old enough. Pay attention to politics and make your own mind up--don't listen to what Michael Moore or Bill O'Reilly say about an issue and think that because they think that, you should too. Don't believe for one minute that the President automatically knows what's best for the country and leave it at that, and that includes our next president, whether he be John McCain or Barack Obama. It's time for America to start paying attention to the issues again.

But don't take my word for it.

"Sicko" Review

So the other night, I watched "Sicko," the documentary about healthcare by Michael Moore. I was expecting a great documentary, due to the popularity of Moore and the number of awards he has won. And I got even more than I expected.

First of all, I would like to say that I supported a universal healthcare system before I watched the movie. What I was really looking for were some facts and statistics to back up my ideas, rather than the simple belief that healthcare is something that everyone deserves, no matter their income level, like education and protection by the law.

But the film was focused much more on individuals and their experiences with the healthcare systems in the USA and abroad, which were actually quite interesting. A lot of people have had bad experiences with the American system, including employees of big insurance companies. These accounts were quite moving, as they exposed how greedy and profit-driven the companies really are, as employees would get bonuses for turning down the highest number of customers' claims. There were also people who were victimized by the system, and had lost loved ones or been sent into poverty due to the greediness of the HMO's.

There were some statistics, however. A lot of them were interesting, such as that the USA has 50 million people (about 1/6 of the current population) living without healthcare. That the USA is ranked #37 in the coverage of its citizens, below small and poorer countries (France being #1). Some of the statistics were so outrageous that I did not even believe them, such as when Moore states that the US's infant mortality rate is higher than in most other industrialized countries. I looked up the fact later, and it is true that the US is rated below all developed nations but Latvia in the number of children who die in their first month of life.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/05/08/mothers.index/index.html

After I discovered this, I appreciated Moore's work much more. He showed some very shocking facts, which show how poor the health of our nations really is compared with countries with socialized health care. He also showed the perspective of Candians and British citizens and doctors, to refute the claims that socialized healthcare is poor, slow, or bad for doctors.

And perhaps my favorite part of the movie was when Moore points out how many things in this country are already socialized. Americans' irrational fear of socialism, and how it will lead to *gasp* communism seems to be one of the main blocks of universal health care. But so many things are already provided by the government, such as police, firefighters, libraries, education, and the postal service. These are things that are deemed necessary for society and as rights for citizens, yet they could easily be privatized. So why is it that health care doesn't make the cut for the list of government-provided services?

The only negative I could find with the film was that Moore glorified universal health care more than it probably deserves. He made it seem as if it was a perfect system, praising Cuba for having socialized health care, and made it seem as if it was better to live in Cuba than in the US. As I said above, I support government-run health care, but I don't think it's a perfect system. Everything has some pros and some cons, and even if socialized health care is better than privatized, that doesn't mean it is perfect.

All in all, this is a great movie and I highly recommend it. It is quite depressing at parts, but it's both thought-provoking and entertaining. And as it is said in the film, this issue isn't a partisan one. Even members of the Conservative Party in Canada and Great Britain support universal health care, as it is a basic human right. If we can unite behind universal suffrage, equal protection under the law, and equal education, why not health care?