Letter from Michael Moore to Bush
Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?



Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
http://www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.



yeah that pretty much sums up what i've been thinking...
i don't normally discuss my political views BUT i've been just a tad pissed about how this horrible event has been handled. i can't understand how our country can't be prepared for something like this after all that talk after 9/11 about preparing our country for disaster and terrorism attacks... we had soldiers guarding damns after 9/11….what were they planning to do then, if those damns were to give out?

AMEN!

I saw Arlan post this on Interlude's myspace, and I couldn't agree more.

Agreed. COMPLETELY.

I agree with most of it, but I hate Michael Moore. He's from Michigan and is always trying to get attention and be in the spotlight somehow. Seems like he is just using this horrible situation to bring further attention to himself. I wonder what he is doing to help the victims, beside writing a letter. Doesn't sound like he is on his way to help the victims. (sigh)

I don't like Michael Moore, but I agree w/ this.

quote:

Originally posted by tylerfanfromMI:
I agree with most of it, but I hate Michael Moore. He's from Michigan and is always trying to get attention and be in the spotlight somehow. Seems like he is just using this horrible situation to bring further attention to himself. I wonder what he is doing to help the victims, beside writing a letter. Doesn't sound like he is on his way to help the victims. (sigh)

By writing this letter, he is raising public awareness.

True, I just wish he wasn't just all talk and actually did stuff to help the victims. I rather listen to someone who was anti-government and actually doing stuff to improve the situation themselves than just someone who is anti-government.

I guess this is all just a matter of opinion. I'd say that the fact that Moore has links all over his website about how we can help, and gives tips on how we can help is helpful (not to mention all of his efforts to end the war), but you might say that he's not "directly helping". I definitely see where you are coming from; he's very opinionated, and if you don't agree with everything he says it's very easy not to like him.

he's the absolute opposite of Bush: just the way most people don't agree with everything Bush says, many people still say their politics swing more that way. The same pretty much goes for Moore...

quote:

Originally posted by bekkaliz:
I definitely see where you are coming from; he's very opinionated, and if you don't agree with everything he says it's very easy not to like him.

I think that's exactly it - he comes across as very strong in his opinions, which is a bit overwhelming and I like when people are a bit more gentler in their opinion and aren't so harsh with the way they say stuff. Definitely, our gov't didn't handle this well and took too long too respond - hopefully they will do a better job with the rebuilding efforts.

In case anyone is interested, the Oprah Show on Tuesday will be doing a live show from New Orleans and I think it will be a very heart-wrenching and empowering show. They are going to be taking us through the city and talking to victims, etc.

i agree with what you say to a certain extent, but as a proud bush support i'm going to defend him in saying that, people in new orlean were warned about the hurrican and told that it would be best if they evacuated, we can't very well blame mr. bush for those people not leaving. and people(including the president) have been working non stop to try their best at getting help to the people of new orleans. they're doing the best they can and if the best is that they have i don't think think its fair to chastize mr. bush for trying to do his best to help them. helping them is going to take money and he can't very pull pull all that money out of his ass now can he? no thats why there is fundraisers and why all that money raised is finally being put to use.

That is a good point, people were warned about the hurricane and asked to leave beforehand. Bush can't force them to leave nor did he create the Hurricane. Even in the most prepared situation, I think things still would have been messy.

I could have a lot to say about this but I will choose not to so that there aren't any fights or anything started.

I will say that I do not like or agree with Michael Moore....All he does is get Americans stirred up..he should to more to actually help the causes he says he supports.

quote:

Originally posted by tylerfanfromMI:
That is a good point, people were warned about the hurricane and asked to leave beforehand. Bush can't force them to leave nor did he create the Hurricane. Even in the most prepared situation, I think things still would have been messy.

it's the poorest of the poor that couldn't get out...they had no place to go...

Really, Bush and the rest of the administration should have seen the problem arising, a good deal of time before Katrina hit. Just saying "evacuate" and giving a flick of the wrist, won't help people who can't afford to leave. Aid should have started the minute they saw Katrina was going to make a direct hit, not just pretend that New Orleans was going to magically move 100 feet above sea level before the storm. It was poor planning when they built the city almost 300 years ago, but now they've got to deal with it effectively.

it just shouldn't have taken this long to effectively turn things around and start heading back in the right direction. Things shouldn't have gotten worse before they got better.

quote:

Originally posted by roddickgirl:
he's the absolute opposite of Bush: just the way most people don't agree with everything Bush says, many people still say their politics swing more that way. The same pretty much goes for Moore...

Very well put! As are your other points. While I agree 100% with the letter, I'm admittedly not Moore's biggest fan.

As far as the "they were warned and had time to get out" argument...unless you've actually had to evacuate for a hurricane, you have no idea what that's like. It's so much more difficult than simply grabbing your stuff and heading north. For starters, take the worst traffic jam you can imagine and multiply it by 1000. That's just an idea of what traffic is like. Then you've got to have a place to stay if you actually get to where you're going. The last time I evacuated, I left with PLENTY of time and it still took me 10 hours to get to a place that should have easily been a 5 hour trip. When I finally got there, all the hotels were booked...I slept on the floor of a middle school gym.

(fun story: the next night I found a hotel room. It was the first, and only, time I've ever stayed in the Hilton. )

I definitely agree that choosing NOT to leave if you have the means to do so is just stupid. Just don't underestimate evacuation; getting out isn't nearly as easy as one would think.

Most of the people who stayed in the effected areas didn't have a way to get out...no car, no money, no place to stay. Governmental help did not arrive for 5 days after the hurricane struck (even though food/water/help was promised after 3...still too late!). Even after the storm ended people continued to die because of poor living conditions. Take, for example, the 9-11 tragedy. Help arrived immediately. It is unfortunate, but the United States spent so much money supporting the awful tsunami a few months ago that they don't have enough resources to help their own country. I know that's horrible to say...but i feel like it's true. The United States spends too much time and money supporting OTHER people, other countries, meddling in other peoples business, that when a tragedy like this happens on our own territory, we are dumbfounded and cannot respond in a timely fashion. I think it's great that we're helping less fortunate places, but how horrible is it that we can't help ourselves when we need it? Why are we sending so much money and so many resources away from our country when we have people, children, families in our own country that are homeless, without food, and living in poor conditions. I'm not saying we shouldn't help others, it's just that we need to focus a little more on bettering ourself.

wow...thats what i have been saying to people when it comes up..not as detailed but basically!!! amen to that
<33Britt

quote:

Originally posted by Hokie Emily:
Most of the people who stayed in the effected areas didn't have a way to get out...no car, no money, no place to stay. Governmental help did not arrive for 5 days after the hurricane struck (even though food/water/help was promised after 3...still too late!). Even after the storm ended people continued to die because of poor living conditions. Take, for example, the 9-11 tragedy. Help arrived immediately. It is unfortunate, but the United States spent so much money supporting the awful tsunami a few months ago that they don't have enough resources to help their own country. I know that's horrible to say...but i feel like it's true. The United States spends too much time and money supporting OTHER people, other countries, meddling in other peoples business, that when a tragedy like this happens on our own territory, we are dumbfounded and cannot respond in a timely fashion. I think it's great that we're helping less fortunate places, but how horrible is it that we can't help ourselves when we need it? Why are we sending so much money and so many resources away from our country when we have people, children, families in our own country that are homeless, without food, and living in poor conditions. I'm not saying we shouldn't help others, it's just that we need to focus a little more on bettering ourself.

i agree 100%

and might i add i'm very pleased with the response of this thread. i'm so happy that everyone is being respectful of others views.