Sit down Michael Moore. We get the point.
America was founded on basic rights, the right to free speech among them. That right gives every American–rich, poor, powerful, weak and everything in between–to yell and scream at the top of their lungs about almost everything under the sun.
You’ve got a problem? Say something. You think there is something wrong with the world? Find a sunny spot and say your piece. But just keep one thing in mind: Nobody needs to respect you for it or even has to like what you say.
The Oscars lasted a little more than three hours Sunday night, not that anyone was really watching; the show garnered the lowest rating in its long, illustrious history. But in those three hours, there was hardly a mention of the soldiers overseas defending this incredible country and working to rid it of future attacks, which includes defending the film industry’s annual over-hyped and self-indulgent awards banquet. It’s amazing what reality is and what Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industry perceive reality to be. Take Michael Moore for example, the award winning director of “Bowling for Columbine.”
Moore was booed off the stage for saying his piece about our current “ficticious” president and the “ficticious” war.
Michael, I loved “Canadian Bacon” Funny stuff, man. But how does knocking Canadians in a comedic movie qualify you to tell the rest of the people of your own country, and the world at-large, what needs to happen. In all honesty, if the world were as perfect as you think it could be just by listening to you, then we probably wouldn’t need any more documentary films about the injustices of the world, which, correct me if I’m wrong, would leave you jobless.
And the insults aren’t just coming from ultra-left Hollywood elitists. They are also coming from the typically conservative country music circuit.
The Dixie Chicks were recently pulled off of a lot of country music play lists after their lead singer, Natalie Maines, said “We’re ashamed our president is from Texas” at a concert in England. Some Texans, who, as it turns out, are ashamed that the Dixie Chicks are from Texas, came out in droves to both support their president and demolish thousands of their Dixie Chick CDs.
Natalie, stick to Fleetwood Mac covers and southern jukebox records–they are more your speed.
All that these two instances showed was that the public had heard the messages of the entertainment industry, and the collective response was one of disgust and bewilderment.
In fact, the vast majority of the public does in no way, shape or form agree with Hollywood’s “party line,” and they are fed up with it.
Even Martin Sheen, the “ficticious” president from “The West Wing” is having to simmer down lately, after being blasted by his own network and other actors within it, former senator Fred Thompson among them.
Martin, sure you’ve played the part of a president three times before, in “Medusa’s Child”, the mini-series “Kennedy” and “West Wing”, but I beat Michael Jordan in basketball on Playstation, and that does not mean that I should be in the NBA. Stick to memorizing scripts and crossing illegally onto military bases.
The most ironic part about all of this is that the very right to say whatever you want is being defended vehemently by our own armed forces right now in Iraq; the ones who are constantly hearing from actors and singers back home that their mission and their goal is unjust and wrong.
If Michael Moore and Natalie Maines are so sure that the war is a bad idea, perhaps they should go to Iraq and spend a day among the regime. Once their tongues are cut off and once they are languishing in prison, perhaps they will finally fathom the repugnance of their remarks and the shallowness of their own lives.
Jack Smedile is a sophomore studying marketing.
