Michael Moore

First, sorry for the depressing and weird last post. Maybe I'll explain that later.

But, onto more important things, like the present. I just got back from seeing Michael Moore on his "Slacker Uprising" tour and I'm totally invigorated. Yes, the guy is extreme and out there with a lot of things, but he is doing a lot of good and motivating a lot of people.

I don't know how many thousand people were there tonight, but it really did give me hope that maybe Kerry can win this election. Before tonight I thought that getting out there to vote was enough, but now I realize that I really need to do more. Whatever I can do to convince other people to vote in the next 11 days is crucial. I know the Republicans are out there doing their job, so I need to do mine.

Anyway, among the issues he talked about were 9/11, the war, media's coverage of the war and of politics in general, and minority issues (of women, gays, and non-whites).

He talked about extreme conservatives on TV, including Bill O'Reilly and his new book - The O'Reilly factor for kids. Did you know this existed? Included in it is a section on "sex" and advice to "girls" and "guys." The jist of it was - girls, guys only want one thing and as soon as they get, they'll dump you. And for guys, beware of girls who only want to use you to brag about their sex life. You'll end up looking like a loser. Or something like that. It was ridiculous and if you're in a book store, it might be looking up on page 96 or 76 or something to get the exact wording.

Some of the funny incidences of the night included a series of six "VOTE BUSH" ads that Moore made and is kindly giving to the Republican party to show in the coming days. One of them, called "Duck" had shots of a war and the voice over said "When John Kerry went to war in Vietnam and bullets were shot at him, he ducked. Do you want a president who ducks?" Another, "John Kerry had long hair [shot of Kerry in the 70's]...now he has SHORT hair. What will he do next? No flip flops in the white house. Vote Bush."

Moore's next film is going to be on pharmaceutical companies. Apparently, they got wind of this and Pfizer sent out a "secret memo" that some pissed off employee forwarded to Moore. He read it to us and it basically said "If you see a heavy-set white man with a beard, rumpled clothing, and a microphone, you might want to think twice about talking to him. Word has it that Michael Moore's next documentary is on pharmaceutical companies and we're not sure if he's pro or against." Haha. Then it went on to give a Michael Moore hotline number to call if he approaches you. So of course the audience screams to give us the number, and everyone holds up their glowing cell phones (quite a sight!) and enters the number. He told us to call on Monday morning and whisper into the phone in a desperate and frantic voice "He's in the building!! Quick! I'm under the desk! Send reinforcements...he's getting closer! Please come!!"

Good laughs were had by all.

But when he started talking about the war again all the letter he got from soldiers (published in his book - Will they ever trust us again?) and all the lives that have been lost their, I almost started to cry. It just all seems so unfair and unjust.

I am really glad I went and really glad that our school hosted this. Mike Gallagher (a conservative radio personality) had his own talk and "protest" at a different part of campus. I was expecting to see a lot of protesters at our event (with signs like "NO MOORE LIES" or something), but they weren't.

All in all it was a really great night. He is quite a motivational speaker and really made me want to get more involved and do more than just turn in my ballot on November 2nd.

If he comes to your city on his Slackers Uprising tour, you should definitely go.