“George Bush take a look at this!” yelled Michael Moore from beneath his trademark baseball cap to a packed cheering crowd in Magness Arena last week. The award winning author and film maker spoke to students about everything from the pending war to the Columbine tragedy.
Without question the hot topic of the night was President Bush, or as Moore referred to him as the “Commander and Thief.” Moore belittled Bush to the point of flat out calling him dumb. He shared many interesting insights about Bush family ties to the Bin Laden family, including the fact that Bush flew Bin Laden’s family members to Paris hours after the attack on Sept. 11, but Moore also noted that 66% of Americans oppose the war without U.N. support, or that majority of people polled can’t even find Iraq on a map.
What I found truly insightful was the fact that Moore said we will have to pay for this. Everything we have done, all the innocent women and children that we have bombed, we as Americans will have to answer to that someday. I believe that we, those of us who will soon be running this country ourselves, need to realize that. We need to wake up and say what we are doing is not right and that we will not stand by while innocent people are killed. War is sometimes required as in the case of World War II with Nazi Germany. In this case, we as a country had the obligation to step in and help stop the mass genocide taking place.
Moore also questioned Bush’s use of the term God. Moore asked what God is Bush referring to, because the God Moore belives in teaches that we will be judged based on how we treat those who are the least among us. This is a profound, yet simple insight. Too often we think that God is an American, that God always is supporting whatever we do. But stop and think about what America stands for, capitalism. Make the money no matter who you have to screw. If someone gets in your way, simply get rid of them. God cares for the babies America has bombed just as much as he cares for the President who ordered the bombs to be dropped. But one day that President will have to answer for his decisions and for that child’s life.
