Movie Monday - Or Is It?

Huffington Post, The New York Times online, The Record online; I bet every news website has the Oscar night coverage on the front page.

The Huffington Post lets you scroll through their choices of the best and worst trends in Oscar gowns. Wow! Louis XIV’s court at Versailles would have loved it. The yards and yards of delicate and dry cleanable fabric arranged into gowns of utter uselessness. What a fitting marker for the fin de siècle of the United States and perhaps the world. After all, it was supposedly Louis' great-grandson, Louis XV, who coined that pithy phrase: Après moi, le déluge (After me, the flood).

There’s a lot of jumping for joy with the win of Slumdog Millionaire but it’s such a typically American picture that no one should have been surprised with its win. You have the poor boy, separated from his true love, overcoming adversity, achieving great wealth and his true love.

Isn’t that how we all live in the United States? And what a great economic time to remind us of the joys of living poor because we know, we really know in our hearts as we tackle this march into poverty, that one day our dreams will all come true. That’s what makes capitalism the best economic system ever. Hollywood told us all this during the 1930's depression with its plethora of movies showing rich people “seeing the light” by the final credits - but still remaining rich. Why not tell us again during this depression? You know how Hollywood loves sequels.

Which brings me to my movie to review: Sicko by Michael Moore.

Sicko, which is not a new movie (2007), compares the health care system in the United States with the enlightened national health care systems in the rest of the industrial world.

Michael Moore is a visual Studs Turkel and hated because his visual medium is so effective in driving the wingnuts crazy.

I have a lot of trouble watching this movie straight through since the anger level it achieves in me is not healthy. I marvel at the stupidity of the American people in accepting their profit-driven health care system and also accepting the scare-tactics drivel offered by opponents of a free, national health care system paid by taxes. It’s not comforting to watch that B-actor, Ronald Reagan, who became a D-level U.S. president, intone about the danger of the U.S. becoming like the Soviet Union if we accept free universal health care. Nor is it comforting to watch Hillary and Bill Clinton make an attempt at reforming our health care (and a pretty feeble one at that) and then pragmatically walking away from this issue when a multi-million dollar insurance/pharmaceutical/medical advertising campaign was mounted against this reform.

Then Moore shows us free, national health care in Canada, England and France. Oh, the horror! They get sick; they go to the hospital; they don’t have to pay. America can’t allow that. These countries are filled with people lacking the doubled angst an illness brings when coupled with the fear of being unable to pay the medical bills. That’s what makes America great. We have the freedom to worry. And, what makes it even greater in this country is the fact that we don’t have to pay the taxes other countries do for their free, national health care. Screw basic human rights. We ain’t paying no stinking taxes. (Except to bail out banks, Wall Street.......)

And so, Americans will be marching into this great depression, free to lose not only their jobs but any health care insurance these jobs provided. If the statistics are correct and 14,000 Americans will lose health care coverage every day (NYT) we are going to face an ugly and sicko sight very soon.

I guess you can understand why I only watch Moore in small doses.

See this movie: rent it, catch it on TV; but see it. Then go to:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/health-care-proposal/

and read Moore’s simple proposal for health care:

1. Every resident of the United States must have free, universal health care for life.
2. All health insurance companies must be abolished.
3. Pharmaceutical companies must be strictly regulated like a public utility.

If you want take action, here’s a way to contact your representatives:

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

Just click on your state and you’ll get electronic correspondence hyperlinks for your representatives.

I’m sure they’ll all be sympathetic. Who can quarrel with the angst of an illness? But don’t expect any action. Have you taken a look at the contributions the insurance, pharmaceutical, and medical industries make to Congress?

You don't stand a chance.