I went to see Michael Moore's latest installment, Sicko, on Friday night. True to form, at the Coolidge Corner Theatre (a non-profit theatre) at 10 p.m., the theatre was almost full.
Let me first say that I am a pretty big Moore fan. I have liked all his films, from Roger & Me to Bowling for Columbine to Farenheit 9/11. I haven't seen his two earlier films.
I understand that his "documentaries" are really commentaries. Those who say he is one-sided are, I believe, missing the point. He intends to be one-sided. He sets out to tell a story, using facts, from the side of the story he believes needs telling. On his website, he provides factual back up for the claims in his films and he has challenged others to find factual errors in his films. Occasionally, someone says they found a fact error and a whole brouhaha ensues. Whatever. We are fed misinformation every day in various forms. I think that those who complain that his films are one-sided just don't really want to see the side he is showing. They would prefer to not have to think about "it" (whatever the it is in each case).
I went to see Sicko the same way I see all Moore's films. I walk in assuming that I will agree with him and that I will cheer for his pokes at our government and that I will enjoy comradarie with those in the theatre with me (since most people who go are somewhat like-minded, even more so at the non-profit theatre in Brookline where I tend to see a lot of things). I also walked in assuming that I would be angry during the film and afterwards, as I usually am. Moore is not the only one who does this to me. Super Size Me and Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price both did it to me as well. I get all worked up over the injustice in the world and the things that our regulatory boards allow, etc. etc.
Usually I'm fine. Bowling for Columbine was hard to watch in parts, obviously, as was Farenheit 9/11. But this one made me cry. A lot. I think that my state of mind is different this time around because I feel such dispair about the war and the Bush Administration. Every time I turn around, some other atrocity is happening (Bush pardons Libby, he vetos yet another effort to end this "war", some Republican yells on the floor at all the Democrats who are "only trying to end the 'war' in an effort to make a political statement" (what?), and another teen is killed in Boston in a senseless homicide). I've been overwhelmed for a while now, counting the days until this Administration is gone (wearing my 01.20.09 button proudly on my bag), thinking that once it's out, all our troubles will be fixed. This, of course, is the delusion that we Democrats have created to help us deal with the delusions that are being baraged at us daily. We are probably in for a lot of surprise and frustration come '09 and '10 and more.
But I digress. I am someone who has stated, in public, often, that I would gladly pay much higher taxes a la Sweden or France if I knew that everyone was getting health care and everyone was getting college paid for and everyone was getting support. I am a Democratic Socialist and have been as long as I can remember. So, watching Moore talk to Canadians, and French, and British folks about their socialized medicine and education was tough. Then he talked to ex-pat Americans in France and that was even harder. It made me want to defect. To leave. To go live in one of those places where I can participate in this kind of system.
Moore, in a very Moore-like move, gathers a bunch of people who are suffering from ailments and can't get their insurance to cover what they need, and takes them on a boat from Miami to Cuba. He tries to get them into Guantanamo, where detainees get better health care than your average HMO covered American does, and when that fails, ends up in a Cuban hospital. Since three of his bretheren are 9/11 volunteers suffering from ailments caused by the smoke and rubble, the emotional capital is clear. But the care these folks received in Cuba, that's what made me cry. I don't care if the whole thing was staged for the movie. I don't care if they paid off the doctors there to see these folks to make a point. What I care about is that Cuba has fine medical equipment, fine doctors who know what they are doing, physician training programs (there were 4 young Paraguayans from my town in Py who were studying in Cuba for free and then were coming home to Py to be doctors), and one of the lowest instances of HIV infection (.1%) in the world.
Go ahead, make your points about Fidel and how Cubans' lives are run by the Government and goddamn it, I'd rather be free! Go ahead. I won't try to stop you. But I will point out that I'd take it. Who cares if the government has control over some things? They already control enough. If it meant that I knew that even if I left my job I'd still have healthcare and that the family down the street whose Dad just got laid off doesn't have to worry about losing their house because Billy just broke his arm, I'd take it.
Go ahead, talk crap about the French. Talk about how they don't like us. Got anything else? I didn't think so.
Go ahead, talk about how our privatized medicine means that we have a longer life expectancy. I'd say: France, Sweden, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom all have higher life expectancies than we do and they all have socialized medicine.
Go ahead, say how we innovate more than other people. That we invent more. That our education system is amazing. That we can earn more money and live easier, cusher lives than anyone else on the planet. Okay. Then tell me who gets to do those things. The rich and sometimes the middle-class. Nobody else. The split between the rich and poor in this country is getting bigger and bigger each year. The cycle of poverty is reaching unbreakable proportions. Privelege is a requirement to get anywhere in this country, increasingly.
Wow. I think I'll step down off my soapbox now (even though it is a borrowed soapbox since even I, with my two degrees and middle-class upbringing, can't afford my own) and finish up.
Watch Sicko. Read A Thousand Splendid Suns (to learn about civilians in Afganistan and why bombing the hell out of a country for their government's policies isn't always a good and fair and just idea). Stop watching Fox News. Listen to the BBC on your local National Public Radio (NPR) station. Let's stop letting the government scare us. And as Moore said in the film, "Why aren't we taking care of each other?" Let's take care of each other in whatever way we can each day.
