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To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:
From Michael Moore
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
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