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Moore enlightens
 Media Credit: Christine Johnson/Editor Michael Moore speaks to a full house Thursday in the Kimberly A. Ritsche Auditorium. His topics ranged from parking at SCSU to his new book �Stupid White Men.� He also stressed that it is the duty of U.S. citizens to become informed about the government.
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 Media Credit: Christine Johnson/Editor Michael Moore spends time to talk to another audience member while signing books and cards late Thursday night outside the Kimberly A. Ritsche Auditorium. His speech, which included his perspective of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, held the attention of nearly all 900 audience members for over three-hours.
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Michael Moore did one of his first speaking engagements Thursday since the Sept. 11 tragedy. He had much to say.
Although Moore is known for his work in the film industry with productions like his $30 million film "Roger and Me," and is becoming known as an author with books like "Downsize This," he was most interested in discussing the current situation in our world and how much we have to learn from it.
And the 900 students and community members who packed Ritsche Auditorium and stayed glued to their seats for what turned out to be a more than three hour presentation, wanted to hear what Moore had to say.
Moore was originally slated to appear at SCSU Nov. 12, but the plane crash in Queens, N.Y., caused this to be postponed.
"In the last few months in New York, there's been a glum sense of sadness and a different connection to the world as it exists," Moore said. "I haven't spoken much, because I haven't felt like it."
The plane crashes into the World Trade Center took the life of Moore's line producer, William Weens and affected many people his family was close to.
"All of this is very real, yet at some point because we're a free society with a democracy; this requires that we ask some questions," Moore said. "We wander around wondering what happened, why it happened, who did it and how we can make sure it doesn't happen again."
Moore asked the audience to do some critical thinking about the coverage of what is going on between the United States and Afghanistan and consider the missing details. Moore questioned why, if 15 of the 19 highjackers involved were from Saudi Arabia, would Bush attack Afghanistan. And why Bush had the relatives of Usama bin Laden flown out of the country before the FBI had a chance to carry out an investigation. He also asked why, within minutes of the attacks, experts were on television saying bin Laden was behind them. Moore had yet another question.
"We hired him, trained him, our CIA gave him more money ($3 billion) than we've ever given to anyone; when the Soviet Union was gone, what did we expect him to do?" Moore asked. "And he's the enemy?"
Moore went on to quiz the audience with questions on topics like who the top Republican in the White House is and what the top corporation in the United States is and received many wrong answers before getting the correct ones. Moore also pointed out that fewer than half of U.S. citizens even vote. Of course, he had a point to make.
"We're stupid." Moore said, referring to how little Americans know about themselves and the rest of the world. "How can we do anything if we don't even know who's calling the shots?"
Ironically, Moore was in the process of publishing the book called "Stupid White Men" with Harper Collins, a mainstream publisher in September, which was temporarily put on hold. When Sept. 11 came, 50,000 of Moore's books had gone through the printing press. Although there are technically laws against censorship in the United States and others protecting freedom of speech, Moore found himself being asked to rewrite portions of his book, take out certain passages, and pay $100,000 for the changes.
"I couldn't believe what I was hearing; it was against everything I've been taught since birth," Moore said.
Of course, Moore thought of a creative way to handle the situation.
"I decided to let the word leak to librarians, they started a letter writing campaign, and the book will be published without any changes on Feb. 19."
What motivated Michael Moore to become a filmmaker, an author and an activist? For Moore, being a citizen of the United States makes him an activist. The rest comes from passion.
"I'm one of the laziest people you'll ever meet; if I could spend six hours a day as a vegetable I would," Moore said. "But if we can reach our fellow vegetables, we have to work together."
In the 1970s, Moore was sent to Boy's State camp and noticed a poster for a speech contest when he was skipping out of a session and taking a trip to the vending machine. On the bottom of the poster, he found the words "caucasians only." This motivated him to enter the contest and write a speech about why the organization sponsoring the event was racist. He ended up winning the contest and to the dismay of the sponsoring organization made his first appearance on CBS news and the organization changed its policy. Later on, as a senior in high school, Moore learned that he just needed to have 20 signatures in order to be eligible to run for school board, he decided to give that a shot, and became the first 18-year-old in the United States to be elected to a public office.
"By doing hardly nothing, we can do something," Moore said.
Although, Moore is not particularly pleased with the simplified way the world is presented in the mainstream media, he encouraged people who want to make a difference not to avoid it. Before you can make any sort of change, you have to learn how to connect with people.
"Don't separate yourselves from the world you live in," Moore said. "Listen to the music people listen to and watch the programs people watch."
Moore showed clips of his television show, "The Awful Truth," with a story about eight undocumented workers who nearly got deported by the Holiday Inn in Minneapolis and his not-yet-released film, "Bowling for Columbine," where he shows the mixed messages Americans are presented with about violence.
When the presentation finally came to an end, people from all fields and interests stood in line to wait for signatures from Moore with no regrets about spending their evening with him.
"I appreciate Moore's willingness to speak out at a time when the government is trying to silence all of us," Theresa Flick, graduate student said. "He brought up the issue that we need to look at what the U.S. is doing."
Elaine Davis, SCSU Management Professor, who said she's been showing Michael Moore's films in her classroom for the last decade, attended and encouraged her students to attend.
"He's a little biased, but I tell my students to watch and take what they can," Davis said. "There aren't many people who challenge the system and he does it with comedy."
Thanuja Kulasekera, graduate student from Sri Lanka, found the event to be interesting.
"I've never seen anyone talk this publicly about so many issues," Kulasekera said. "He reminds us not to always think about profits, but to think about people too."
Kyle Haiman, junior the UPB member who made it possible for Moore to come to SCSU was pleased.
"It went a lot longer than I expected," Haiman said. "But it was a pleasant surprise."
After signing the final book at midnight, Moore was exhausted but also energized by the crowd.
"Honestly, I read the room," Moore said as he signed the last book. "It was clear people in the audience were thinking about what's going on and I had a lot of things to get out after not speaking for a long time."
Sharon K. Sobotta can be reached at: [email protected]
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