Blood boiling

Marcy and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 last night, the late show at the local Silver City. It got out around 12:45 AM.

I had trouble sleeping; there were too many thoughts racing around my head. I felt just absolutely numb driving home. Every personal review that I’ve read has said something to the effect that “there wasn’t anything new to me discussed in the film” and to tell you the truth I find that difficult to believe.

Sure you might have known about the Bush-Saudi connection (after all, the major points discussed in the film were broadcast on CBC’s The Fifth Estate last year). Sure you probably read about Bush’s military service suspicions. Sure you knew about the Saudi flights on September 13th. Do you want a medal? This movie is not about testing how much you know and if you go around preening about how “educated” you are then you’ve missed the point.

Note: the above does not apply to any of my friends (real or Internet-based); I’ve just read some other reviews that have irked me.

This movie is certainly controversial and it’s not going to do much for uniting the general populace of the United States together on the issues. I think James has made some excellent points to that effect.

Here we are, just over 4 months away from Election Day in the U.S.. Will this movie change people’s minds? I really don’t think so. How important is this next election? Incredibly important and once I put my pictures online I’ll show you how far the Bush-Cheney campaign has gone to court voters in so-called “swing” states (my parents home state of Ohio being a very big example).

Now I said above that this movie probably won’t change your mind about the issues addressed. That’s not to say that the images shown in the film won’t affect you deeply. I’m doubtful that there would be a lot of people not moved to tears listening to the mother in Flint reading her son’s last letter home before he was shot down in his helicopter. Well ok, a lot of people besides the two thirteen year-old girls sitting behind us. The people in New York City watching the events of September 11th still haunt me. Seeing footage from Iraq haunts me. Looking at the smug expressions of the Bush Administration officials haunts me. By using archived footage almost exclusively, it lends some measure of authenticity to the facts presented though I don’t pretend to believe that the movie is entirely factual.

The next few months are going to be ugly. Shawn talks about the most recent problems with the Bush ad campaign here. The latest Bush ad is truly despicable. Make no mistake: it will be almost impossible for there to be an open and honest debate about the issues, foreign and domestic, before Election Day in November. It’s up to everyone to get as informed as possible on the issues. Don’t just read your current selection of media releases – expand your horizons and read something with the opposite viewpoint of yours. I read conservative news, blogs and writers on a daily basis because I want to know the issues and knowing the issues is more than just reading one side and making up your mind.

I’m terribly afraid of what’s going to happen over the next 5-10 years here in Canada, in the United States and around the world. What consequences will be visited upon our children and grandchildren because of our foolishness today? How could anyone possibly comprehend the complexity of our world? The people in power aren’t that much smarter than I am and that’s quite scary because even with the collective intelligence of all the people reporting to me (were I a world leader), I would find it incredibly difficult to form any kind of broad vision for the future.

In some ways this movie has made me disenchanted with politics. I’m hoping that by casting my ballot today in our own federal election, my democratic spirit can be stoked once again.

If you want to get a regular update of the situation on the ground in Iraq, I highly recommend Just Another Soldier. There used to be a blog there but the military forced the man to take it down and now updates go via a mailing list (I know, how old-fashioned). It’s worth signing up.

License

This work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Canada License.