michael moore and the dixie chicks

[Guest guest]

dear all,

 

it might look like i got hired to advertise michael

moore's words but this is not so. there's no need to

agree with him or being really into his movies. but i

think america is lucky to have his voice. . .

 

om namah shivaya

 

-c

______________________________

 

 

April 7, 2003

 

Dear friends,

 

It appears that the Bush administration will have

succeeded in colonizing Iraq sometime in the next few

days. This is a blunder of such magnitude -- and we

will pay for it for years to come. It was not worth

the life of one single American kid in uniform, let

alone the thousands of Iraqis who have died, and my

condolences and prayers go out to all of them.

 

So, where are all those weapons of mass destruction

that were the pretense for this war? Ha! There is so

much to say about all this, but I will save it for

later.

 

What I am most concerned about right now is that all

of you -- the majority of Americans who did not

support this war in the first place -- not go silent

or be intimidated by what will be touted as some great

military victory. Now, more than ever, the voices of

peace and truth

must be heard. I have received a lot of mail from

people who are feeling a profound sense of despair and

believe that their voices have been drowned out by the

drums and bombs of false patriotism. Some are afraid

of retaliation at work or at school or in their

neighborhoods because

they have been vocal proponents of peace. They have

been told over and over that it is not "appropriate"

to protest once the country is at war, and that your

only duty now is to "support the troops."

 

Can I share with you what it's been like for me since

I used my time on the Oscar stage two weeks ago to

speak out against Bush and this war? I hope that, in

reading what I'm about to tell you, you'll feel a bit

more emboldened to make your voice heard in whatever

way or forum that is

open to you.

 

When "Bowling for Columbine" was announced as the

Oscar winner for Best Documentary at the Academy

Awards, the audience rose to its feet. It was a great

moment, one that I will always cherish. They were

standing and cheering for a film that says we

Americans are a uniquely violent

people, using our massive stash of guns to kill each

other and to use them against many countries around

the world. They were applauding a film that shows

George W. Bush using fictitious fears to frighten the

public into giving him whatever he wants. And they

were honoring a film

that states the following: The first Gulf War was an

attempt to reinstall the dictator of Kuwait; Saddam

Hussein was armed with weapons from the United States;

and the American government is responsible for the

deaths of a half-million children in Iraq over the

past decade through its sanctions and bombing. That

was the movie they were

cheering, that was the movie they voted for, and so I

decided that is what I should acknowledge in my

speech.

 

And, thus, I said the following from the Oscar stage:

 

"On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael

Donovan (from Canada), I would like to thank the

Academy for this award. I have invited the other

Documentary nominees on stage with me. They are here

in solidarity because we like non-fiction. We like

non-fiction because

we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where

fictitious election results give us a fictitious

president. We are now fighting a war for fictitious

reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or the

fictitious 'Orange Alerts,' we are against this war,

Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And,

whenever you've got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks

against you, you're time is up."

 

Halfway through my remarks, some in the audience

started to cheer. That immediately set off a group of

people in the balcony who started to boo.

 

Then those supporting my remarks started to shout down

the booers. The L. A. Times reported that the director

of the show started screaming at the orchestra "Music!

Music!" in order to cut me off, so the band dutifully

struck up a tune and my time was up. (For more on why

I said what I said, you can read the op-ed I wrote for

the L.A. Times, plus other reaction from around the

country at my website

www.michaelmoore.com)

 

The next day -- and in the two weeks since -- the

right-wing pundits and radio shock jocks have been

calling for my head. So, has all this ruckus hurt me?

Have they succeeded in "silencing" me?

 

Well, take a look at my Oscar "backlash":

 

-- On the day after I criticized Bush and the war at

the Academy Awards,attendance at "Bowling for

Columbine" in theaters around the country went up 110%

(source: Daily Variety/BoxOfficeMojo.com). The

following weekend, the box office gross was up a

whopping 73% (Variety). It is now

the longest-running consecutive commercial release in

America, 26 weeks in a row and still thriving. The

number of theaters showing the film since the Oscars

has INCREASED, and it has now bested the previous box

office record for a documentary by nearly 300%.

 

-- Yesterday (April 6), "Stupid White Men" shot back

to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. This is

my book's 50th week on the list, 8 of them at number

one, and this marks its fourth return to the top

position, something that virtually never happens.

 

-- In the week after the Oscars, my website was

getting 10-20 million hits A DAY (one day we even got

more hits than the White House!). The mail has been

overwhelmingly positive and supportive (and the hate

mail has been hilarious!).

 

-- In the two days following the Oscars, more people

pre-ordered the video for "Bowling for Columbine" on

Amazon.com than the video for the Oscar winner for

Best Picture, "Chicago".

 

-- In the past week, I have obtained funding for my

next documentary, and I have been offered a slot back

on television to do an updated version of "TV Nation"/

"The Awful Truth."

 

I tell you all of this because I want to counteract a

message that is told to us all the time -- that, if

you take a chance to speak out politically, you will

live to regret it. It will hurt you in some way,

usually financially. You could lose your job. Others

may not hire you. You will lose friends. And on and on

and on.

 

Take the Dixie Chicks. I'm sure you've all heard by

now that, because their lead singer mentioned how she

was ashamed that Bush was from her home state of

Texas, their record sales have "plummeted" and country

stations are boycotting their music. The truth is that

their sales are

NOT down. This week, after all the attacks, their

album is still at #1 on the Billboard country charts

and, according to Entertainment Weekly, on the pop

charts during all the brouhaha, they ROSE from #6 to

#4. In the New York Times, Frank Rich reports that he

tried to find a ticket to ANY of the Dixie Chicks'

upcoming concerts but he couldn't because they were

all sold out. (To read Rich's column from yesterday's

Times, "Bowling for Kennebunkport," go here:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/articles/index.php?article=20030406-nytimes.

 

He does a pretty good job of laying it all out and

talks about my next film and the impact it could

potentially have.) Their song, "Travelin' Soldier" (a

beautiful anti-war ballad) was the most requested song

on the internet last week. They have not been hurt at

all -- but that is not what the media would have you

believe. Why is that? Because there is nothing more

important now than to keep the voices of dissent --

and those who would dare to ask a

question -- SILENT. And what better way than to try

and take a few well-known entertainers down with a

pack of lies so that the average Joe or Jane gets the

message loud and clear: "Wow, if they would do that to

the Dixie Chicks or Michael Moore, what would they do

to little ol' me?"

 

In other words, shut the f--- up.

 

And that, my friends, is the real point of this film

that I just got an Oscar for -- how those in charge

use FEAR to manipulate the public into doing whatever

they are told.

 

Well, the good news -- if there can be any good news

this week -- is that not only have neither I nor

others been silenced, we have been joined by millions

of Americans who think the same way we do. Don't let

the false patriots intimidate you by setting the

agenda or the terms of

the debate. Don't be defeated by polls that show 70%

of the public in favor of the war. Remember that these

Americans being polled are the same Americans whose

kids (or neighbor's kids) have been sent over to Iraq.

They are scared for the troops and they are being

cowed into

supporting a war they did not want -- and they want

even less to see their friends, family, and neighbors

come home dead. Everyone supports the troops returning

home alive and all of us need to reach out and let

their families know that.

 

Unfortunately, Bush and Co. are not through yet. This

invasion and conquest will encourage them to do it

again elsewhere. The real purpose of this war was to

say to the rest of the world, "Don't Mess with Texas -

If You Got What We Want, We're Coming to Get It!" This

is not the time for the majority of us who believe in

a peaceful America to be quiet.

 

Make your voices heard. Despite what they have pulled

off, it is still our country.

 

Yours,

 

Michael Moore

www.michaelmoore.com

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mailing/.php

 

 

 

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