“George Bush, take a look at this crowd!”
Michael Moore said this to a capacity audience Wednesday night and they applauded and laughed.
Moore, the creator of the Oscar-nominated “Bowling for Columbine” documentary, spoke at Magness Arena as part of the continuing “Bridges to the Future” program started in September by Chancellor Daniel L. Ritchie and President Al Yates of Colorado State University.
About 8,000 students, faculty, staff and community members came to hear Moore. Another 2,000 were turned away when doors were closed and roped off at 8:30 p.m. Moore flew in from the East Coast and was half an hour late. The audience watched the first half hour of “Bowling for Columbine.”
Moore has been a vocal critic of the violence Americans allow to thrive in their culture and of President Bush.
“George Bush’s approval rating is down since he stole our White House,” Moore said. “You’re part of a majority of Americans who oppose this war [Iraq], who never elected this guy.”
Moore, whose films have addressed political issues for the last two decades in a painfully funny manner, spoke from 8:30 to 11 p.m. and no one got up to leave.
Moore began his speech by stressing how liberal America is.
“I wanted to start tonight by giving you hope in these extremely depressing times,” he said. “Most people don’t believe that because it seems so hopeless sometimes. We live in a country that desperately wants a liberal agenda enacted. But what we have is a minority of white guns.”
Moore attributed the success of the “white guns” to their efforts and the majority’s apathy.
“They’re very good at winning and stealing elections,” he said. “They’re very good at raising money. They’re up at the crack of dawn thinking about who they’re going to screw today.”
Moore said that Americans are also responsible for the drift of the United States into a war with Iraq.
“We’re so indecisive. Listen to yourselves,” he said. He then imitated a typical exchange between two people.
“Where do you want to eat?”
“I don’t know.”
Moore said, “Listen to yourselves,” he said. He then imitated a typical exchange between two people.
“Where do you want to eat?”
“I don’t know.”
Moore said, “Listen to yourselves.”
He added, “The conservatives are like, ‘Get in the car, we’re going to Sizzler’s.’ No wonder they win.”
Moore said the government rounded up thousands of Arab Americans after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and denied them the rights granted to Americans by the Constitution. “Where are they tonight? What are their names? What happened to the United States of America? This is our country. You don’t do this.”
Moore’s solution for change is permanent participation in American democracy and elections. “You’ve been told since you were a child you don’t count. But history is full of examples where one person made a difference. We are being told to be afraid and we’ve got to find the courage.”
Moore said that ways need to be found to involve more Americans in the political process. “We’ve got to make politics accessible to people that hate politics,” he said. “I want to propose that most Americans are slackers [and] that we find a way to get people involved without having to do a lot. I think by proposing that you don’t have to give up five hours of TV a day.”
Before he opened the session to questions from the audience, Moore spoke about ‘Bowling for Columbine.’
He said, “I wanted to do something that wasn’t about Columbine, but about the country Columbine is set in. It could have happened anywhere.”
A student who attended Columbine during the massacre that left 15 people dead, admitted later in the evening, “Your movie was very painful to watch, but it did get us talking.”
While making the documentary on violence in America, Moore said he discovered that Lockheed Martin, one of the country’s largest rocket and missile manufacturers, was the largest employer in the Columbine area.
“I wondered why nobody mentioned it,” Moore said. “I began thinking about all the threads that create the fabric of how violent we are to each other and the rest of the world.”
About his humorous approach to serious subjects, Moore said, “People laugh because they’re sad. The best side of laughing is to relieve the pain. Laugher is the best way to reach people.”
At the end of the event, Moore showed a music video created by using clips from the anti-war protests on Feb. 15 and the music of a group called System of a Down. Moore anticipates its release on MTV in a matter of months in what he hopes to be “a very powerful anti-war effort.”
