Fahrenheit
9-11: The Temperature at Which Freedom Burns
Meryl
Ann Butler
OpEdNews.com
Seeing police stationed
outside our small town movie theatre in Northern Arizona was the first
clue that something unusual was going on. The next was the shell-shocked
looks on the faces of viewers leaving the premier of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit
9-11.
Painstakingly researched and documented, the movie offers some good-sized
chunks of the evening news that never made it into American living rooms.
As the bandwagon filled with most of America's media heads into the
sunset, with Cheney holding the reigns, we finally see the intertwined
connections between the bin Laden and Bush families, the infiltration of
Halliburton and the Carlyle Group into our government and the Nero-ic
image of Bush golfing while Rome burns.
Startling is the footage of George W. on Sept. 11th, as he is told that
America is under attack. With a look of hollow confusion on his face, he
continues to read a storybook with schoolchildren for an agonizingly long,
near-seven minutes. Concern for the country that he has promised to
protect seems painfully absent. Though this incident is hardly secret,
seeing it in living technicolor is arresting. You'd have to be dead not
to wonder, "What the hell was he thinking?"
When Moore wonders how Congress could have passed the civil liberties
shredding Patriot Act, Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit) replies, "We
don't read most of the bills (we vote on.)" Thankfully, grim
seriousness is peppered with one of the movie's flawless touches of
comedic relief as Moore, borrowing a jingly-tuned ice cream truck, reads
the Patriot Act over the loudspeaker to Congresspersons walking around
Capitol Hill. Back on the street, Moore asks Congressmen to sign their own
sons and daughters up for a tour of Iraq. Predictably he garners no
takers, but his point, as usual, is razor-sharp.
In another thread, Flint, Michigan's true matriot, flagwaving Lila
Lipscomb's story will stagger your soul. God bless her for sharing her
journey to the White House with us.
On Friday's Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Moore thoughtfully
commented that his movie is, after all, simply his opinion, and that one
of the great things about America is our right to freedom of speech. And
he hoped that when enough citizens offer their opinions, then somehow we
might be able to make sense of where we are and where we are going. And
now that even ultraconservatives Pat Buchanan and Phyllis Schlafly have
added their voices to the criticism of the current regime, it is no longer
just the far left, or even the near left who are stirring their opinions
into the melting pot of concerns.
Fahrenheit 9-11 is an historic movie, one that no American
should miss, regardless of persuasions left or right. If its 21-gun salute
doesn't jolt you awake, at least you'll find out what your compatriots
are wondering, and why.
Meryl Ann Butler is an
artist, author and educator who counts First Lady Dolley Payne Todd
Madison among her ancestors, as well as James Payne and Thomas Wheeler,
signers of the Articles of Confederation (the precursor to the
Constitution.) She is grateful to know that the blood of America's
matriots and patriots runs in her veins. To visit her gallery of Art for
Peace & Spiritual Politics, (currently under construction but open for
visitors) go to www.creativespirit.net/MabArt
c. 2004 Meryl Ann Butler. This article may be posted or reprinted in
its entirety.
