Fahrenheit 9/11

Okay, i saw it.

I finally made it to the theater Sunday with Troy to see the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. I gotta hand it to Michael Moore. He knows how not to pull the punches. I am not going to go into the details of the movie, because i know some people still haven't seen it, but suffice it to say it ain't easy to watch.

I found myself sitting in the theater almost from the first images tapping my foot, bouncing my knee and shifting in my seat with suppressed energy. Many of the people i know who've seen the film talk about how angry it made them. I guess part of what i felt was anger, but i felt some other things too.

Fear. Shame. Disgust.

I don't think i've ever been made to understand so completely (and graphically) the ways our so-called "leader" is pissing off the rest of the world. Especially the "Arabic" world. If i ever had any doubt before as to whether (or why) folks in Iraq hate the USA, i honestly doubt no more. Our forces, acting on the word of their commandeer-in-chief, have given them every reason.

It really made me that much more aware of what kind of desperate circumstances the powerful, wealthy, white men in this country are creating for everyone else. And, to paraphrase, desperate people go for desperate measures. Trust that we have not seen the end of the guerrilla tactics taht will be enacted against this country.

I will give these small bits of advice to those who haven't seen the film yet:

1. Go see it. Don't wait, either; there's a Republican movement to have it pulled from theaters because it's "campaign propaganda." (Consider it required pre-election viewing.)
   
2. When you go, prepare yourself for some gut-wrenching violence. This is not sanitized, Hollywood-style killing; there are explicit scenes of the realities of war that we don't get to see on the evening news.
   
3. Be prepared to be moved. If not by the violence, then by the deep emotions displayed by some of the people Michael Moore interviewed.

In the end, i left the theater with a jumble of emotions: anger, fear, sorrow, frustration, and an unsettling sense of hopelessness. After all, none of this is particularly new information or new behavior. Some rulers are just better at keeping the peace while they grab their piece.

The rest of us peons just have to live with the crumbs.