{"id":48,"date":"2009-09-08T16:07:23","date_gmt":"2009-09-08T20:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/?p=48"},"modified":"2009-09-08T16:15:53","modified_gmt":"2009-09-08T20:15:53","slug":"where-is-michael-moore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/?p=48","title":{"rendered":"Where is Michael Moore?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where is Michael Moore?<\/span><\/h1>\n

\u00a0Healthcare; a love poem.<\/h2>\n

On the way to work this morning I thought about healthcare.\u00a0 I asked myself, where are all of Obama\u2019s supporters now?\u00a0 We wanted change.\u00a0 What are we willing to do for it?\u00a0 I have done nothing but scratch my head and wonder what it is I can do.\u00a0 I am a writer, I remind myself, and it may not be much, but I can write about healthcare in support of our President.<\/p>\n

However, the hovering question that kept me alert in the worst traffic I\u2019ve experienced since the beginning of summer and throughout the 15 minute detour delay was\u2014the question bothering me was, where is Michael Moore?<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t lose friends quietly; I lose them in loud and unwinnable arguments.\u00a0 I lost a friend because of Michael Moore.\u00a0 Because I didn\u2019t believe Michael Moore was god.\u00a0 Because I didn\u2019t believe Michael Moore has done more to help \u201cworking class\u201d people than \u2026\u2026..\u00a0 our definition of working class differing\u2026..my belief that \u201cworking class\u201d are more likely to be poor and less likely to be Moore\u2019s audience, than the more likely less poor progressives who already understand and applaud Moore\u2019s messages, thus a pat on the back for Moore, and a \u201cwe\u2019re cool\u201d pat on the back for the audience. I believe Moore isn\u2019t a god, he\u2019s a movie maker; he eats well, he lives well, etc.\u00a0 The problem between my friend and I began when I sent a video that my sister sent me that happened to show another side of Mr. Moore (Mr. Moore not the movie maker).\u00a0 My friend was outraged.\u00a0 I learned, don\u2019t slander a friend\u2019s guru (it wasn\u2019t slander, really), or if you do (I didn’t) be ready to lose that friend.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen most, if not all, of Michael Moore\u2019s movies.\u00a0 I even own one or two.\u00a0 But, I see him as human, like the rest of us.\u00a0 And not at all perfect.<\/p>\n

Still, on the way to work it dawned on me, where is Mr. Moore?\u00a0 Immediately after seeing Sicko <\/em>(June 2007), I would have liked to have gotten on a plane and moved to a country where I would be guaranteed healthcare!\u00a0 That\u2019s how convincing Moore\u2019s movies can be.\u00a0 But, I\u2019m smart enough to know, after the popcorn is gone, and I\u2019m home thinking how lucky I am I have good healthcare\/including dental care because I am a State employee, that there are at least two, but most likely three or four or five slants to every story (I\u2019m a creative writer, after all) and I shouldn\u2019t pack my bags too quickly\u2014has Mr. Moore packed his bags?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, where is Michael Moore, presenter of doom, when President Obama is trying to promote change, trying to better the U.S. healthcare system–and needs all the Michael Moore help he can get?<\/p>\n

I decided to find out.\u00a0 One search on the internet, one click on one article by Mike Collett-White<\/a> (Reuters) told me exactly where Mr. Moore might be\u2014perhaps in Venice where his new movie premiered on Sunday, Capitalism:\u00a0 A Love Story.<\/em>\u00a0 Moore is quoted as saying \u201cCapitalism is an evil.\u00a0 . . You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people and that something is democracy.”<\/p>\n

Moore is quoted as saying:\u00a0 “Democracy is not a spectator sport, it’s a participatory event, . . . If we don’t participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy. So Obama will rise or fall based not so much on what he does but on what we do to support him.”<\/p>\n

Is Moore participating in creating healthcare change, or just flaunting how bad our healthcare system is?\u00a0 Am I participating in change, or just writing a solitary blog chastising a film maker who is good at making the U.S. look bad?<\/p>\n

I am not a politician.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know much about politics.\u00a0 But I do know I want to see healthcare change in America.\u00a0 I want my friend who is now 43 years into living with diabetes, and no longer able to pay $900\/month for healthcare which he has had to pay since he was laid off from yet another failed high tech communications business ($900 which doesn\u2019t even cover all of his healthcare needs) and even though he has put hours of volunteer time into the healthcare industry hoping to find a new career, one he is passionate about, he has yet to be hired by anyone in the industry, perhaps because one\u2019s experience living with the disease is not a line anyone wants to see on a resume.\u00a0 Oh, don\u2019t get me started.\u00a0 Another friend is a writer who has never had healthcare, but is an artist dedicated to social justice and America needs writers to deliver the truth, but truth sayers are not necessarily well-loved citizens; yet they too, or maybe even more than most,\u00a0deserve healthcare coverage.\u00a0 I, like many friends I know who are nearing or past the age of 62, would love to retire and spend my time where my passions are; for example, getting people to write their stories (about the need for healthcare change). But I can barely dream (and I am a dreamer) of ever retiring before 65 when I become eligible (maybe I will still be eligible) for Medicare because healthcare goes out the window with \u201cearly\u201d retirement; and then at 65 one must be able to afford supplemental healthcare insurance.\u00a0 I\u2019m digressing.<\/p>\n

Where is the love?\u00a0 I know it\u2019s a clich\u00e9, but where is the love?\u00a0 Why aren\u2019t all of us who supported Obama for President not rallying now? Let\u2019s make some noise, write some letters, march in the streets.\u00a0 Do whatever we as individuals can do.\u00a0 I am starting by writing this blog entry, it\u2019s not much, but it\u2019s something.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This entry is a poem, a love poem.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let the format confuse you.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another lunch hour gone by.\u00a0 I am posting my poem as is. I have some reading to do.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot I don\u2019t know about healthcare\/reform.\u00a0 If there\u2019s one thing I can do now (well after work) is to \u00a0research, read, and try to sort fact from fiction.\u00a0 And then, maybe I will write a poem that behaves like a poem.<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0 My insurance is through Health Partners; here\u2019s an interesting read about Minnesota’s Health Partners<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/economy\/Health-co-ops-may-not-be-realistic-nationwide-57649247.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sherry Quan Lee<\/p>\n

September 8, 2009<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where is Michael Moore? \u00a0Healthcare; a love poem. On the way to work this morning I thought about healthcare.\u00a0 I asked myself, where are all of Obama\u2019s supporters now?\u00a0 We wanted change.\u00a0 What are we willing to do for it?\u00a0 I have done nothing but scratch my head and wonder …<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-imagining-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}