letters from Michael Moore to Bush and the community
www.michaelmoore.com

1) The Presidency -- Just Another Perk
2) This is the cold light of day - shock treatment!
3) Let's Look At the Bright Side of Life!
4) 9-12-01 day after World Trade Center Events
5) 9-14-01 Bush you killed my friends in NY

The Presidency -- Just Another Perk
November 13, 2000

Dear Governor and President-in-Waiting Bush:

This has to be the first time in our history that a candidate
who is losing BOTH the popular vote AND the electoral
vote insists on being anointed President of the United
States.

I can understand why you expect this title to be yours. You
have spent your entire life having everything handed to you.
You have never had to earn your place. Money and name
alone have opened every door for you. Without effort or
hard work or intelligence or ingenuity, you have been
bequeathed with a life of privilege.

You learned at an early age that, in America, all someone
like you has to do is show up. You found yourself admitted
to a wealthy New England boarding school simply because
your name was Bush. You did not have to EARN your place
there. It was bought for you.

You then learned you could get into Yale with a "C" average.
Other, more deserving, students who had worked hard for
12 years to earn their place at Yale were denied admittance.
You got in because your name was Bush.

You got into Harvard the same way. After screwing off
during your four years at Yale -- and maintaining your "C"
average -- you took someone's else's seat at Harvard, a seat
that they had EARNED.

You then pretended to serve a full stint in the Texas Air
National Guard. But one day, according to the Boston Globe,
you just skipped out and didn't report back for a year and a
half to your unit. You didn't have to earn your military record
because your name was Bush.

After a number of "lost years" that don't appear in your official
biography, you were given job after job by your daddy and
other family members -- jobs you didn't have to earn. No matter
how many of your business ventures failed, there was always
another one waiting to be handed to you. Finally, you got to
be a partner in a ball team -- another gift -- even though you
put up only 1/100 of the money for the team. And then you
convinced the taxpayers of Arlington, Texas, to give you
another perk -- a brand-new multi-million dollar stadium.

So it is no wonder to me why you think you deserve to be
named President. You've haven't earned it or won it --
therefore it must be yours!

And you see nothing wrong with this.

Why should you? It is the only life you have ever known.

I will never forget the footage of you sitting in your governor's
mansion the night of the election when it was first declared
that Gore had won Florida. Surrounded by poppy and mommy,
and on the phone to your brother the governor of Florida, you
were a picture of calm. You had not a worry in the world. You
told the press that your brother had assured you Florida was
yours. If a Bush said it was so, it was so.

But it ain't so. And when it dawned on you that the Presidency
had to be earned and won by a vote of the people -- yes, the
people! -- you went berserk. You sent in hatchet man James
Baker ("F--- the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway" was his
advice to Poppy in '92) to tell lies to the American people and
stoke the nation's fears. When that didn't work, you went to
federal court and sued to stop the votes from being counted
because you knew how the vote would turn out.

What kills me is how you have turned to the big, bad, federal
government for help! Was not your mantra, during every
campaign stop, the following line:

"My opponent trusts the federal government. I TRUST YOU,
THE PEOPLE!"

So now we learn the truth. You don't trust the people at all.
You went running to the FEDERAL court to get your handout
("Trust the machines, not the people," you pleaded). But the
judge didn't buy it, and for perhaps the first time in your life,
someone said "no" to you.

What will you do now? According to the New York Times,
90% of your campaign funds came from just 775 American
millionaires. Oh, that they could bail you out of this mess! I
wouldn't count on them -- it's not like they have suffered
financially under Clinton/Gore. They know they will do just fine
with the Kissin' Fool. I think, my friend, you are on your own.

Mr. Bush, your only hope is that Gore will wimp out and
throw in the towel. There is ample evidence of how Democrats
love to cave. You and your right-wing friends know the
Democrats are weak-kneed and spineless. You remember how
Al Gore and all the Democrats voted to put that anti-abortion
zealot Scalia on the Supreme Court -- and how 11 Democrats
made the difference in placing Clarence Thomas there, too?

That's your ticket. Spook Gore and his party into believing a
focus group is mad at them, take a phony poll that backs that
up, get the gasbag pundits to yammer and hammer him and maybe,
just maybe, you'll get the latest plumb prize that is not yours to have.

Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com

Michael Moore's (Roger and Me, etc) take on this historic turning point:
This is the cold light of day - shock treatment! and a call to arms

December 11, 2000

Dear friends,

I'm sorry I haven't been able to write to you in the past couple of weeks. My mom became ill and had to have surgery. Everything went well and she is now recovering. My sisters and I are blessed to have our parents, nearing 80, still with us.

Meanwhile, I guess some sort of overthrow is taking place right here in the good ol' U.S. of A. I knew the U.S. Supreme Court was dominated by reactionaries and conservatives. But, honestly -- I never, ever, believed
it was... crooked.

Until now.

This Court appears ready to install a President who did not win the election. Can this really be happening?

Everyone knows that if the votes are ever counted in Florida, Gore is the winner. George W. Bush knows that more than anyone -- that's why he's fighting so desperately hard to stop that count from ever taking place.

If he felt he was truly the winner, his attitude would be, "Sure, go ahead and
count the ballots, I'm not worried 'cause I know I'm the winner."

But that's NOT what he thinks or knows. He knows he lost. EVERYONE knows
he lost. Let's cut the B.S. If those 12,000 ballots ever get counted, George W. Bush is the loser and everyone with an I.Q. of over 70 knows it.

Why would the loser insist on being given the top prize? Have you ever heard of such a thing? Not only that, he has convinced all the loser-lovers in the Florida legislature and the U. S. House of Representatives to grant him the victory in case he loses -- again -- in court.

In every other nation on this planet, they have a word for this
behavior -- and that word is "coup." George W. Bush and his allies in Congress,
the Florida legislature, and the U.S. Supreme Court are trying to stage a coup,
an overthrow of the will of the people.

According to last Sunday's stunning front page story in the Miami Herald, had there been no shenanigans in the Florida election, the Herald calculates that Gore would have won Florida by 23,000 votes! You can check out this story by clicking here:
http://www.herald.com/content/archive/news/elect2000/decision/104268.htm

The theft of this election didn't just start with Jeb Bush's girlfriend/Bush for President Co-Chairwoman/Bush delegate to the Republican Convention/Secretary of State Katherine Harris's refusal to count the ballots. Months ago, Jeb and Katherine sought to eliminate as many black voters as possible from the voting rolls. This is a mind-blowing story
and I encourage you to read it by clicking here:
http://www.bushneverwonflorida.com/
The U.S. Supreme Court stopped the counting of the ballots this weekend and violated the law in doing so.

They are allowed to grant a stay only if "irrevocable, irreparable harm" would happen if the votes were counted. Since when does the counting of our citizens' votes cause "irreparable harm"? Justice Antonin Scalia said (I'll
paraphrase here), well, we believe Bush won and if we allow those votes from Florida to be counted and Gore ends up ahead, well, that would cause irreparable harm to a Bush administration.

Yes, that is what he said!

Look, let's be honest about something. Part of the reason we are in the mess we are in today is because AL GORE voted YES to put Justice Scalia on
the Supreme Court.

Let me say this one more time so it sinks in to every Gore-loving head out
there:

AL GORE VOTED TO PUT SCALIA ON THE SUPREME COURT!

The chickens sure have come home to roost for that blunder (and for the 11 Democrats who voted YES to give Clarence Thomas his narrow victory). Don't write me and tell me about the kind of Court we "might" get under Bush thanks to Nader. We already have it, thanks to Al and his Democrats. It's a tough pill to swallow.

Listen, this fight today, Monday, December 11, 2000, is not about Al Gore. It is about the only thing that ultimately matters in a democracy -- the right to vote. The right to have a say in who will represent us. Gore got 300,000 more votes than Bush. Gore won. Gore will have more votes in Florida if those ballots are allowed to be counted. Gore won.

I have no personal interest in seeing Al Gore in the White House. I did not vote for him.

But I don't like liars, I don't like thieves, and I really hate cowards.

Mr. Bush (that's what the majority of Americans will always call you, because we will not participate in your lie by ever calling you "Mr. President") -- we know what you are so afraid of. You are a coward for not wanting those ballots counted because you know the outcome. You know you've lost. You know the people have spoken. Be a man, for crying out loud! Go back to your ranch and let us get on with bugging the shit outta Al Gore for the next four years!

Friends, if you do anything today, it must be to take a stand against this
coup. If you live within a few hours of Washington, DC, I am asking that you pack the grounds of the Supreme Court the way any nation of citizens would do if their election was being stolen from them.

The rest of you -- call Western Union right now! That's right, leave this 21st century technology of the Internet behind and return to the 19th century way of the telegram. They will not be expecting an avalanche of telegrams on their desks! Western Union still hand-delivers telegrams. Let's flood the offices of Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and William
Kennedy (the only two conservatives on the Court who are not certifiable loons) within the next few hours and let them know the true will of the people. I am especially calling upon anyone who voted for Bush or Nader or Buchanan to rise above political ideology and take a stand for what you know is right.

Here's how you send a hand-delivered telegram:

1. Call Western Union at 800-325-6000. Then wait for the live operator.
2. Tell the operator that you want to send a hand-delivered telegram that needs to get there within the next few hours.
3. It costs $17.95 for 15 words or less, and another $13.95 for the hand
delivery. That's a total of $31.90. Most credit cards accepted.
4. The address is: Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (or William Kennedy), U.S. Supreme Court, One First Street N.E., Washington, DC 20543.

I know thirty bucks is a lot of dough for many of you. Is our country worth $31.90? I think it is. If you truly can't afford it, then call the Supreme Court today and make your feelings known (202-479-3211).

But I'm telling ya, forcing the Justices to swim in a sea of yellow telegrams -- that will have an enormous impact. It will make national news and inspire millions more to do the same. No one sees the phone calls coming in or the e-mails being sent. But those Western Union guys having to lug truckloads of telegrams up the steps of the Supreme Court... whoa! Call 10 people right now and ask them to join us.

There will be plenty of time later to discuss the other issues pertinent to this election -- why 100 million citizens again did not vote, the way the rich bought and paid for both candidates, why I am personally responsible for this whole mess, etc.

But right now -- TODAY -- we have to act like we have never acted before. Trust me, if they can get away with this, they can get away withANYTHING. Maybe many of you are already convinced that they can. I am still clinging to some sort of strange hope that right and justice will prevail, that a few million of us can shock this corrupt court into coming to its senses, if not its own sense of self-preservation.

The clock is ticking.

Yours,

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com

P.S. Send this letter to anyone you wish, asap.

Yeah, I spent the $31 bucks. Worth it to feel that even if the votes don't count, something might. Eric And heck, Merry Christmas. Could be an interesting one!

From: Michael Moore mailto: mmflint@aol.com www.michaelmoore.com
"Let's Look At the Bright Side of Life!" 12/14/00

Dear friends,

Hail to the Thief!

On this dark, dark day in American history, I prefer to see the next White House as half-full instead of half-empty! That's just the kind of kooky optimist I am.

Instead of brooding over the antics of our Supreme Court Jesters, I'd rather focus on what makes this country great. Such as all that hooey our 7th grade civics teacher told us about how ANYONE can become President of the United States. She was right! It's true! ANYONE just became president. Let this be a lesson to my younger readers -- listen to your teachers!

You know, I always like it when life is a win-win situation. Gore won the "popular" vote, so I guess that means George W. won the unpopular vote! Everyone goes home with something.

OK, put away that Gillette double-edged razor and flush those sleeping pills down the toilet -- tonight is a night for celebration! It's time to count our blessings, to thank the Lord for what we have been given, to reach out and touch someone, to....

To make a list! A list of all the silver linings in this cloud on its way from Austin to D.C. Yes, there are a number good things that will come out of all this madness.

Consider these silver linings:

Silver Lining #1: Ralph Nader QUADRUPLED the Number of Votes He Got in '96!

Continue to ignore his supporters, continue to trash him, and the Democrats will lose AGAIN in 2004. If there is one lesson that had better be learned after all the acrimony dies down it's that the Democratic Party can no longer elect a President without the millions of disgruntled voters who demand an end to the death penalty, a law that provides free health coverage for all, prison time for corporate crooks, a doubling of the minimum wage, a cut in Pentagon spending, and a host of other issues. You don't have to agree with all these positions, but if you choose to ignore them, you do so at your own peril. These last five weeks have done more to turn off millions of Americans to BOTH the Republican and Democratic parties than a hundred Nader super rallies on C-Span could ever hope to do. Trust me, Nader will quadruple his vote again in 2004. That's 12 million voters next time. Count on it.

Come home, Democratic Party, come home.

Silver Lining #2: Someone Is Going to Count Those Votes In Florida.

That's right. Thanks to one of the best Freedom of Information Act laws in the country, any citizen or media outlet in Florida may demand to have the ballots hand-counted. The Miami Herald has already filed their request. If they don't do it, I will. Within the next month or so, this one truth will be proven and revealed: Gore got more votes than Bush in Florida. Gore won. Which will lead us to our next silver lining...

Silver Lining #3: The Bush Presidency Will Be Crippled.

The nation will know Baby Bush only as an illegitimate president. He will be nothing more than an illegal squatter in the Oval Office. Not only will he have no mandate, he will have no business being there. He will get little or nothing done. Put a fork in his administration. It's cooked before they even have the parade.

Silver Lining #4: George W. Bush Likes Naps, Video Games and Taking the Day Off To Go Fishing.

Just in case the hubris of Silver Lining #3 is slightly off, we can be sure that Bush is just lazy enough and just dumb enough so that he won't find the time to do too much damage to the country or the world. The people to keep an eye on will be the cabal he brings to Washington with him. They will require the rest of us to give up napping or going fishing. The video games we keep.

Silver Lining #5: Strom Thurmond Is Not Long for This World.

I say this with absolutely no animosity or disrespect. I hope he lives an even longer life. But I think even Strom would agree -- if you make it to 98, you get the brass ring, and you also know that your days are numbered. Whether forced to retire due to ill health or having to leave the Senate because of a higher calling, when Thurmond goes, the Democratic governor of South Carolina is going to appoint a Democratic senator and that will give the Democrats a 51-49 majority. When that happens, more chaos for Bush, more roadblocks, more trouble for his agenda (though not THAT much trouble, considering that the same rich guys who fund Bush also fund most of these Democrats).

Silver Lining #6: Thank You, United States Supreme Court!

By being so blatantly partisan, you can bet that a post-Thurmond Democratically-controlled Senate is sufficiently ticked off to stop any Bush nominee who is too extreme. And, thanks to this week's 5-to-4 blunder, you have been tricked into doing something none of us ever thought we would get you to do. You have taken a stand against "states' rights!" Yes, that evil concept that the founding fathers agreed to in order to keep the slave states happy has just been dealt a death blow -- by you! We expect to hold you to this new standard. You also made clear your strong support for the equal protection clause in the Constitution. Great! You can prove your new allegiance to equality for all by ordering an investigation as to why one in three black voters in some Florida precincts were not allowed to vote.

Silver Lining #7: We Will Now Have a Nationwide Uniform Ballot.

No more chads, no more Karnack. No more the rich getting the foolproof high-tech vote scanners, and the poor getting antiquated machines that don't work. May I make a radical suggestion? A piece of paper and a Number 2 pencil that one uses to mark an "X" in a square, and then a cardboard box with slit on top that you put the piece of paper into! That's the Canadian way. Last month, they hand-counted thirteen million paper ballots in under 4 hours! We look like idiots. This has to be the first bill passed by the new Congress.

Silver Lining #8: Everyone Finally Knows the Awful Truth: "One Person, One Vote" Is a Lie.

Good. Now we can do something about it. We need a system of proportional representation. That would guarantee that everyone's voice is heard. Remember that other civics lesson -- "majority rule, minority rights"? Proportional representation means if your party got 10% of the vote, you get 10% of the seats. A number of local governments in the U.S. have switched to this much fairer and representative system. In the meantime, we have our best chance now to dump the Electoral College (or, at the very least, reform it so that every states' electors are proportioned to the percentage each candidate got).

Silver Lining #9: We Will Never Have To Look at James Baker or Warren Christopher Again.

'Nuff said.

Silver Lining #10: With Bush In the White House, Evil Has No Mask.

From now on, unlike during the Clinton/Gore years, when the poor are forced into greater hardships, when the innocent are executed, when our First Amendment rights are stripped from us, when our family's jobs are shipped to sweatshops overseas, when a record number of personal bankruptcies continues to rise, when abortion remains unavailable in 86% of the counties in the country, the liberals and Democrats will not sit silently by. It's hard for them to organize any real opposition to a Democrat in the White House -- "I mean, he's one of US! At least he's not a REPUBLICAN! We MUST support him against those EVIL REPUBLICANS!"

And then he does nearly everything a Republican would do -- and gets away with it.

Bush won't get away with it. Liberals and Democrats will be forced to finally take a stand. All will be well until the next election.

Sleep tight, my friends, and don't let the bogeyman scare you. It's only a dream... it's only a dream...

Yours,

Michael Moore
mailto:mmflint@aol.commmflint@aol.com www.michaelmoore.com

9-12-01 day after World Trade Center Events:

Dear friends,

I was supposed to fly today on the 4:30 PM American Airlines flight from LAX to JFK. But tonight I find myself stuck in L.A. with an incredible range of emotions over what has happened on the island where I work and live in New York City.

My wife and I spent the first hours of the day -- after being awakened by phone calls from our parents at 6:40am PT -- trying to contact our daughter at school in New York and our friend JoAnn who works near the World Trade Center.

I called JoAnn at her office. As someone picked up, the first tower imploded, and the person answering the phone screamed and ran out, leaving me no clue as to whether or not she or JoAnn would live.

It was a sick, horrible, frightening day.

On December 27, 1985 I found myself caught in the middle of a terrorist incident at the Vienna airport -- which left 30 people dead, both there and at the Rome airport. (The machine-gunning of passengers in each city was timed to occur at the same moment.)

I do not feel like discussing that event tonight because it still brings up too much despair and confusion as to how and why I got to live. a fluke, a mistake, a few feet on the tarmac, and I am still here, there but for the grace of.

Safe. Secure. I'm an American, living in America. I like my illusions. I walk through a metal detector, I put my carry-ons through an x-ray machine, and I know all will be well.

Here's a short list of my experiences lately with airport security:

* At the Newark Airport, the plane is late at boarding everyone. The counter can't find my seat. So I am told to just "go ahead and get on" -- without a ticket!

* At Detroit Metro Airport, I don't want to put the lunch I just bought at the deli through the x-ray machine so, as I pass through the metal detector, I hand the sack to the guard through the space between the detector and the x-ray machine. I tell him "It's just a sandwich." He believes me and doesn't bother to check. The sack has gone through neither security device.

* At LaGuardia in New York, I check a piece of luggage, but decide to catch a later plane. The first plane leaves without me, but with my bag -- no one knowing what is in it.

* Back in Detroit, I take my time getting off the commuter plane. By the time I have come down its stairs, the bus that takes the passengers to the terminal has left -- without me. I am alone on the tarmac, free to wander wherever I want. So I do. Eventually, I flag down a pick-up truck and an airplane mechanic gives me a ride the rest of the way to the terminal.

* I have brought knives, razors; and once, my traveling companion brought a hammer and chisel. No one stopped us.

Of course, I have gotten away with all of this because the airlines consider my safety SO important, they pay rent-a-cops $5.75 an hour to make sure the bad guys don't get on my plane. That is what my life is worth -- less than the cost of an oil change.

Too harsh, you say? Well, chew on this: a first-year pilot on American Eagle (the commuter arm of American Airlines) receives around $15,000 a year in annual pay.

That's right -- $15,000 for the person who has your life in his hands. Until recently, Continental Express paid a little over $13,000 a year. There was one guy, an American Eagle pilot, who had four kids so he went down to the welfare office and applied for food stamps -- and he was eligible!

Someone on welfare is flying my plane? Is this for real? Yes, it is. So spare me the talk about all the precautions the airlines and the FAA is taking. They, like all businesses, are concerned about one thing -- the bottom line and the profit margin.

Four teams of 3-5 people were all able to penetrate airport security on the same morning at 3 different airports and pull off this heinous act? My only response is -- that's all?

Well, the pundits are in full diarrhea mode, gushing on about the "terrorist threat" and today's scariest dude on planet earth -- Osama bin Laden. Hey, who knows, maybe he did it. But, something just doesn't add up.

Am I being asked to believe that this guy who sleeps in a tent in a desert has been training pilots to fly our most modern, sophisticated jumbo jets with such pinpoint accuracy that they are able to hit these three targets without anyone wondering why these planes were so far off path?

Or am I being asked to believe that there were four religious/political fanatics who JUST HAPPENED to be skilled airline pilots who JUST HAPPENED to want to kill themselves today?

Maybe you can find one jumbo jet pilot willing to die for the cause -- but FOUR? Ok, maybe you can -- I don't know.

What I do know is that all day long I have heard everything about this bin Laden guy except this one fact -- WE created the monster known as Osama bin Laden!

Where did he go to terrorist school? At the CIA!

Don't take my word for it -- I saw a piece on MSNBC last year that laid it all out. When the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the CIA trained him and his buddies in how to commits acts of terrorism against the Soviet forces. It worked! The Soviets turned and ran. Bin Laden was grateful for what we taught him and thought it might be fun to use those same techniques against us.

We abhor terrorism -- unless we're the ones doing the terrorizing.

We paid and trained and armed a group of terrorists in Nicaragua in the 1980s who killed over 30,000 civilians. That was OUR work. You and me. Thirty thousand murdered civilians and who the hell even remembers!

We fund a lot of oppressive regimes that have killed a lot of innocent people, and we never let the human suffering THAT causes to interrupt our day one single bit.

We have orphaned so many children, tens of thousands around the world, with our taxpayer-funded terrorism (in Chile, in Vietnam, in Gaza, in Salvador) that I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised when those orphans grow up and are a little whacked in the head from the horror we have helped cause.

Yet, our recent domestic terrorism bombings have not been conducted by a guy from the desert but rather by our own citizens: a couple of ex-military guys who hated the federal government.

From the first minutes of today's events, I never heard that possibility suggested. Why is that?

Maybe it's because the A-rabs are much better foils. A key ingredient in getting Americans whipped into a frenzy against a new enemy is the all-important race card. It's much easier to get us to hate when the object of our hatred doesn't look like us.

Congressmen and Senators spent the day calling for more money for the military; one Senator on CNN even said he didn't want to hear any more talk about more money for education or health care -- we should have only one priority: our self-defense.

Will we ever get to the point that we realize we will be more secure when the rest of the world isn't living in poverty so we can have nice running shoes?

In just 8 months, Bush gets the whole world back to hating us again. He withdraws from the Kyoto agreement, walks us out of the Durban conference on racism, insists on restarting the arms race -- you name it, and Baby Bush has blown it all.

The Senators and Congressmen tonight broke out in a spontaneous version of "God Bless America." They're not a bad group of singers!

Yes, God, please do bless us.

Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not right. They did not deserve to die. If someone did this to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of California -- these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!

Why kill them? Why kill anyone? Such insanity.

Let's mourn, let's grieve, and when it's appropriate let's examine our contribution to the unsafe world we live in.

It doesn't have to be like this.

Yours,

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com

Bush you killed my friends in NY
Posted 09.14.2001 Across America Tonight

Dear friends,

I am on the road tonight, the only way to get out of L.A. and back
home to our daughter and our friends in New York City. Oddly
enough, I have never driven across this vast country. My wife and I
have now stopped in Flagstaff for a few hours sleep before moving
on.

The sorrow and anger builds across America. Talk radio tonight was
filled with calls for carpet-bombing every Arab country. Many want
revenge, blood. But a surprising number of people have called for us
to not add to the killing of more innocent humans. The rest stops
and the convenience stores along the way were filled with quiet,
solemn people, many of whom, like us, can get home no other way
than by this four-day trip.

Our daughter is fine, mostly frightened by my desire to fly home to
her rather than drive. Once again, I was outvoted 2 to 1. This is
nothing new.

We have learned of more people we know who have lost their lives.
Bill Weems, who worked as a line producer for us this year, was on
the flight from Boston that crashed into the World Trade Center. He
was such a sweet and decent soul. Such senseless madness.

The children of New York who are orphaned tonight ... what do we
say or do? I will do my part -- anything, something -- as soon as I
get to New York. But it will never be enough.

The firefighters of New York: they are on every other block, every
day, and they are your best neighbors. Sitting out on the sidewalks
in front of the fire stations, a good word and a kind smile to all who
pass ... now, 350+ of them gone, having risked their lives to save
the victims of a carnage they soon became part of.

A good friend from Flint is a clerical worker at the Pentagon. I have
heard no word about her condition. I have tried contacting her
family to no avail. Her son, Malcolm, worked on our show. I cannot
find him. I keep getting tears in my eyes. Once she gave me a tour
of the Pentagon, took me everywhere, and got such a kick out of
taking me around this building I used to march on. Will our mutual
friends who know Barbara, and know how she is, please write me?
Please.

The man who occupies the White House cried today. Good. Keep
crying, Mr. Bush. The more you cry, the less you will go to that
dark side in all humans where anger rages to a point where we want
to blindly kill. Your dad's and Reagan's old cronies -- Eagleberger,
Baker, Schultz -- are all calling for you to bomb first and ask
questions later. You must NOT do this. If only because you do not
want to stoop to these mass murderers' level. Yes, find out who did
it. Yes, see that they NEVER do it again.

But GET A GRIP, man. "Declare war?" War against whom? One guy in
the desert whom we can never seem to find? Are our leaders telling
us that the most powerful country on earth cannot dispose of one
sick evil f---wad of a guy? Because if that is what you are telling
us, then we are truly screwed. If you are unable to take out this
lone ZZ Top wannabe, what on earth would you do for us if we
were attacked by a nation of millions? For chrissakes, call the
Israelis and have them do that thing they do when they want to
get their man! We pay them enough billions each year, I am SURE
they would be happy to accommodate your request.

But I beg you, Mr. Bush, stay with the tears. Go today to comfort
the wounded of New York. Tell the mayor, a guy most of us have
not liked, that he is doing an incredible job, keeping the spirits of
everyone up as high as they can be at this moment. Being there for
a city I believe he loves, his own cancer still with him, he goes
beyond the call of duty.

But do not declare war and massacre more innocents. After bin
Laden's previous act of terror, our last elected president went and
bombed what he said was "bin Laden's camp" in Afghanistan -- but
instead just killed civilians. Then he bombed a factory in the Sudan,
saying it was "making chemical weapons." It turned out to be
making aspirin. Innocent people murdered by our Air Force.

Back in May, you gave the Taliban in Afghanistan $48 million dollars
of our tax money. No free nation on earth would give them a cent,
but you gave them a gift of $48 million because they said they had
"banned all drugs."

Because your drug war was more important than the actual war the
Taliban had inflicted on its own people, you helped to fund the
regime who had given refuge to the very man you now say is
responsible for killing my friend on that plane and for killing the
friends of families of thousands and thousands of people. How dare
you talk about more killing now! Shame! Shame! Shame! Explain
your actions in support of the Taliban! Tell us why your father and
his partner Mr. Reagan trained Mr. bin Laden in how to be a
terrorist!

Am I angry? You bet I am. I am an American citizen, and my leaders
have taken my money to fund mass murder. And now my friends
have paid the price with their lives.

Keep crying, Mr. Bush. Keep running to Omaha or wherever it is you
go while others die, just as you ran during Vietnam while claiming to
be "on duty" in the Air National Guard. Nine boys from my high
school died in that miserable war. And now you are asking for
"unity" so you can start another one? Do not insult me or my
country like this!

Yes, I, too, will be in church at noon today, on this national day of
mourning. I will pray for you, and us, and the children of New York,
and the children of this sad and ugly world ...

Yours,

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
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