Tonight I went to see "Sicko", Michael Moore's latest documentary. What a powerful movie.
Several of my friends had seen the movie before me and had offered snipets of information about it. Although I sort of knew what to expect from "Sicko," I was overwhelmed by the movie and reduced to tears by the end. Yes, the personal stories were moving-- the guy who had to choose which finger to save, the couple whose medical bills forced them into backruptcy and their daughter's basement, the 9/11 rescue workers who were foresaken by our healthcare non-system, the little girl who died because care was refused, etc.
But above all of the personal stories, one commentary really hit home for me. An English gentleman said that American corporations and government want to keep US citizens fearful, uneducated, and disillusioned with the system because then they will be so pessimistic and hopeless that they won't vote. They fear citizens who are healthy, educated, and fearless because they can't be easily controlled. He explained that for Great Brittan free national healthcare came with democracy. (Huh? Aren't we the ones who are supposedly making the world "safe for democracy"? Isn't this our biggest export?) How come our democracy values money and corporate profits more than the health and welfare of its citizens? The current government hopes that we will stay uninformed and believe their big lie that the US has the best healthcare. A recent NY Times editorial offered a conservative but thorough comparison between our non-system and healthcare offer in other industrialized countries.
I liked "An Inconvenient Truth" and thought it was exciting how one movie could sigle-handedly push global warming into the collective consciousness of the American people. I hope that "Sicko" does that for healthcare.
Every adult in the US should see this movie and then take action: contact friends and encourage them to go to the movie; send e-mails or letters to legislators encouraging them to actually do something about the US healthcare scandal; blog about "Sicko" and healthcare in the US; send letters and comments to newspapers; march in the streets; and VOTE.
As Michael Moore said at the end of the movie, when are the citizens of the US going to think of "we" instead of "me"?
What would happen if the poor and disenfranchized citizens of the US all registered to vote and actually voted?
2 comments:
This is why my mother participates in registering voters in her neighborhoods and hosted a MoveOn voter registration drive phone party at her house before the last presidential election.
Remember that when Bill was in the White House, Hilary was working on reforming health care and was pilloried for it.
glad to have seen it with you, and yeah, i figured i'd need a hankie. wish i'd brought a spare!
for a long time i have known that fear is the way this government keeps the people down....every time there was some sort of fracas in the admin, they'd up the "terror alert level" to orange and thereby divert the public's attention.
sigh.
i hope Sicko stays in the cheap theater for months! i will happily accompany other friends to see it (but only on tuesdays, lol).
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