A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush from Michael Moore

[Guest guest]

Michael Moore

Sunday, September 11, 2005 3:36 AM

A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush from Michael Moore

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

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

www.michaelmoore.com

mmflint

 

 

 

 

 

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