The following is an update from Suzanne Taylor and
TheConversation.org Making Sense of These Times
Website. Thank you for your interest. If you wish to be removed from this list
at any time, just let us know.
_______________________________________________________
Column
from Geov Parrish: What
Nightmares are Made Of: Weapons of Mass Destruction, Theirs and Ours --
March 6,
2002
Full column: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=12919
Suzanne's comment: After a
comprehensive review of the situation we are in regarding another attack, and
how misguided our policies are which so endangers us, the concluding paragraphs
of this column are the poetry of nightmare that all thinking people could rally
round. As Geov says at the end of this, "There is no more urgent
issue in the world today."
Quotes
drawn from the column:
"Bush, by
walking away from the ABM and other multilateral treaties, has done more to
boost the proliferation of nuclear weapons than any other world leader in recent
history, virtually without public debate...
"Serious
high-level U.S. politicians have urged, in the cases of both Afghanistan and
Iraq, the use of at least tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield. Wars work
through violence and retaliation -- one side's victory is the other's grief and
vow for vengeance. One side's 'freedom fighter' is the other's 'terrorist,' one
side's 'weapon of mass destruction' is the other's 'legitimate right to defend
itself.' And while the United States has more of the hi-tech, deadly gizmos, all
it takes is one small group of people with some imagination and psychotic rage
to do an awful lot of damage -- if they are convinced that Allah and/or the
world will approve.
"The United
States will never be taken seriously when it proclaims the urgency of abolishing
weapons of mass destruction so long as we keep developing them, testing them,
deploying them, selling them, and using them
ourselves...
"So long as
Washington, D.C. sees targeting non-combatants as legitimate, killing people as
the shortest route to peace, and international cooperation as a game for
patsies, others will play by the same rules. The American hubris, that our
unique virtue and technological advantage can suppress everyone indefinitely,
has been the same mistake that has toppled every great empire in world
history."
_______________________________________________________
Five Star Piece: Re
"STUPID WHITE MEN...And Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the
Nation!" -- a Letter from
Michael Moore -- February 5,
2002
Suzanne's comment: I am posting this letter a
month after it was widely circulated in email -- just before publication of
STUPID WHITE MEN -- because of heartening developments since then. After the
book came out, February 19, 2002, having narrowly averted shredding as
out-of-keeping with post 9/11 patriotism, lo and behold it shot to the top of
best seller lists. On his site, Mike says, "Pundits and publishers are
stunned. 'But the president has an 80% approval rating!' There's something going
on here, and they don't know what it is." It's life-giving to know we are not
some teeny fringe, where we would not think we could muster opposition. People
are applauding Mike's message (I was at the talk he gave to more than a thousand
cheering people in Los Angeles last Friday
night) -- that we need a bigger tent than narrow two-party politics, to
hold all the people of goodwill who want what neither party supplies. And, his
encouragement of individuals and small groups to take action, with dramatic
examples from his life of how powerful feisty truthtellers can be. Applause and
appreciation for a message we here take to heart, feisty as we
are.
February 5, 2002
Dear
Friends,
I'd like to tell
you a little tale, a personal story of what it is like to fear losing your
freedom of speech, how it feels to be drowned in a wave of patriotism which
threatens with all its might to suffocate your ideas and stifle
dissent.
For nearly four
months, from September through December of 2001, I did not know whether the book
I had just written for HarperCollins -- Stupid White Men -- was ever
going to be read by the American public. HarperCollins, one of the major
publishing houses in the world, was trying to decide whether the words I had
written were now "too offensive" to a nation which had suddenly fallen in love
with George W. Bush.
By the morning
of September 11, 2001, the HarperCollins printing presses, located in Scranton,
Pennsylvania, had already printed 50,000 copies of an announced 100,000-copy
first printing of my new book -- and then the world, for all of us, came to a
standstill.
The next day, I
spoke to the people at HarperCollins, and I was told that they were going to put
most of their books on hold for the moment. I thought that was a good idea.
"We'll take this a day at time," my editor told me, just as the siren in his
building went off, the first of many bomb scares that emptied the buildings of
Manhattan that week.
I was in no mood
to think about a "book" when all that was on my mind was how my wife and I were
going to get across this country and back home to be with our daughter in New
York. I had no desire to go on a book tour, and the only tour that concerned me
at the moment was the rapid one I was on, in a rented minivan, for the
3,000-mile trek home.
Once back in New
York City, the days turned into weeks, and I began to make calls to the
publisher to inquire when my book would be coming out. The scheduled release
date of October 2 had long since passed.
It was then that
I was informed that there were "problems" with Stupid White
Men.
I was told that,
unless I re-wrote large sections of my book (sections mostly dealing with my
harsh but funny criticisms of the W.), plus change the title and the cover --
and then, after all that, reimburse the publisher of up to $100,000 out of my
pocket (!) so this new version could be reprinted -- then the powers-that-be
might actually destroy the ENTIRE run of 50,000 copies that had already been
printed! My book would be sent to the shredder and "pulped." I would then have
to wait for up to a year before I could take it to another publisher. In other
words, the book would be toast.
I refused to
rewrite a single word of my book. I was proud of everything I had written. In my
opinion, Stupid White Men seemed even more relevant than before. Enron,
Kenneth Lay, Arthur Andersen -- it's all there in my book -- and I wrote those
passages last spring! What if my book had been released when it was supposed to,
on October 2nd? The stuff I had dug up on these guys -- I would have been
talking about them all over the airwaves long before they skipped outta Dodge
with the cookie jar.
There's lots
more in the book that I wanted out in the public arena months ago: An open
letter to Yassir Arafat on how to really win and stop the bloodshed; a report on
a chance run-in I had with Jeb Bush two weeks before the 2000 election on a
deserted street in Tallahassee; my exploration of the three times (that I know
of) that George W. Bush has been arrested and charged with crimes by the police
-- it's all there, and I saw no need to change a single
thing.
But I was told
that "the political climate has changed in America" and that my attacks on Bush
and his cronies would not be met with open arms by a Bush-adoring
public.
I then had a
number of meetings, on the phone and in person, with executives, lawyers, and
editors at the publishing house. They asked for some sort of compromise, for me
to at least "tone down" my dissent. Again, I responded that would not be
possible, and that I could not, in good conscience, alter anything. I did this
knowing full well it would result in the death of my
book.
Word began to
leak out about Stupid White Men being "banned." Articles appeared in
Publishers Weekly and on Salon.com. I was trying to remain quiet about whole
affair, but once a number of reporters found out (not from me), and a group of
librarians organized a letter-writing campaign, HarperCollins, after weighing
all their options (and the potential reaction to those options), decided finally
to release the book AS IS – unchanged and uncensored, on Tuesday, February 19th,
2002.
They did the
right thing, and I appreciated and admired their courage to do so when I know
this was not an easy decision for them to make, considering the pressure they
must have been under.
I have avoided
writing this letter to all of you for weeks. In part, I did not want to say or
do anything that might jeopardize the good working relationship I have now with
the publisher. I have put nearly a year of my life into this book, and the
thought of it not being available because of what you saw in this email just
didn't seem worth it.
HarperCollins is
doing their best to get the book out there -- but now, even they have run into
resistance, with some bookstores telling them that they are not interested in
having me come to their stores on the book tour "due to the controversial nature
of the book...and the change in the country's political climate." Can somebody
tell me why weather patterns have suddenly become everyone's primal political
fear?
Lately, I
started getting a lot of mail from around the country (and the world) as this
story spread. People wanted to know the truth about what had happened. Some had
seen the issue of Entertainment Weekly a few weeks ago which had named
me their Winner of the Week for succeeding in getting my book released. I
decided it was best to let you know from me personally what has transpired --
and that the outcome was a good one, a rare victory these days for our side, and
for the cause of free expression.
For me, it
really came down to the fact that, as an American living during a time where our
own government (and a mostly compliant press) seeks to silence discussion and
"manage" the truth, it was important to tell you what I have seen, what I have
been through, and to wonder what would have happened if I had not been a writer
who was known and had an audience and an email list that on a good day reaches a
few million people. I don't like this feeling, and I would greatly appreciate it
if this country would come to its senses and start acting like America again (or
least our IDEA of America!).
My book comes
out on February 19th, 2002. I'll be hitting a couple dozen cities on the book
tour, and I'll probably add a few more (if you'd like me to come to your town,
let me or HarperCollins know!). 100% of whatever royalties I make on each book
sold in every city on the tour will be donated to a local social-change
group.
Also --
apologies in advance to you for having to look at my mug all over the tube
during the upcoming weeks (you'll be able to avoid me by checking the press
schedule on my website, beginning on the night of Feb. 19th with the
much-anticipated mano y mano smackdown with Bill "Rile Me Up!" O'Reilly on the
Fox Nuisance Channel).
Over the next
couple of weeks, I will be also adding new items to my site (michaelmoore.com) such as "Vote for Your
Favorite Stupid White Man!" and "Take the Stupid White Man Quiz!" You'll also be
able to read in the coming weeks sample passages from the book, plus two new
online chapters I have written for it (post 9-11).
Oh, and if you
want to get the book right now, you can order it from the website for
independent bookstores, BookSense, or at the sites with the deep discounts:
Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com. And, on the 19th of this month, it will be at
your local independent or chain bookseller, right next to the wrestlers' tomes
and Pat Buchanan's Book o' Laughs.
Needless to say,
the publishing industry, much of which believes that now is NOT the right time
to be selling a book of political humor like this, will be watching to see just
how well people respond to an author who thinks it's funny to suggest that
falling off couches usually has something to do with a beverage, and not a solid
salted food product.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com
[We've also
posted an update
from Michael, March 6, 2002, reporting on his book
tour.]
_______________________________________________________
You can always visit our What's New Since Last
Update page for links to
everything new since our last big update on the site.
We're sending these messages in HTML -- prettier
than text. If you prefer text, let us
know.
Also, if you would prefer to receive only LINKS to Five
Star Pieces in your email, and not entire pieces, let us
know.