WEB PAGE TOOLS ~ Print this article ~ E-mail your opinion on this article OTHER NEWS STORIES ~ 'Cabaret' poster design comes under scrutiny ~ In Progress: Student panel encourages discussion ~ Multicultural Week Events Guide ~ News Briefs Golden idol and all, Moore appearance was religious experience Chris Jones Ebbtide Reporter The appearance of Michael Moore at the Shoreline Community College Arts and Lecture series April 15 was a love fest. A dozen or so demonstrators standing outside the gym entrance had no noticeable effect on the crowd of Moore devotees eager to attend one of his first appearances since the controversial Oscar acceptance speech ("fictitious election results" and "fictitious reasons for going to war"). Most attendees agreed with his stand on the Iraq war; he was met with repeated standing ovations, the first of which occurred before he'd even reached the stage. Still, Moore would be preaching to the choir; there would be a large dose of politics and humor, but the evening would have no small resemblance to a religious revival. Stepping to the podium, Moore reached into a black shoulder bag and pulled out the golden Oscar statuette he'd won scarcely three weeks before. As he waved the statue back and forth above his head it was clear from the cheers of the audience that they felt the Oscar was as much theirs as it was Moore's. The group of protesters outside the hall could call them unpatriotic, Fox News could sneer all they wanted, but Moore and his ideas had won the Oscar and that was validation enough. As applause subsided, the little idol was given to the crowd and passed from hand to hand for the rest of the evening. Photo by Christopher Nelson Golden idol passed among the faithful during the revival. Moore said he worries that the events of the last few years have caused some liberals to become so despondent that they may abandon politics all together. The economy has limped along, threatening to fall back into recession at any moment. The Republicans have given no indication that they have the least idea what to do about the economy beyond their "charity begins at home" support for a tax cut for their own constituents. Environmental laws have been rolled back or subverted with astonishing speed. The aftermath of 9-11 brought a series of moves detrimental to basic civil rights, and further incursions are promised. The media coverage of 9-11 and the anthrax attacks seemed designed to create panic rather than provide accurate information during a national emergency. Terrorist threats, real and imagined, are being manipulated by the administration or the terrorists or both. And then there was the buildup for and commencement of the war in Iraq. That the administration had decided several months earlier to invade Iraq was obvious to everyone except the major TV networks who week after week blithely reported the justification de jour: it's the weapons of mass destruction; it's the terrorist links; it's the tyranny; it's for liberation of the Iraqi people, etc. It's no wonder Moore worries that his sympathizers may need a bit of cheering up. "Don't be depressed or full of despair because Bush is getting 70-percent approval ratings and 70 percent supporting the war and all this. That is very understandable, it would happen to anyone.... After Sept. 11 his ratings shot up because that is all we had ... It's more like, 'love the one you're with,'" Moore explained. "You've been convinced - because you're probably like me, watching too much TV and too much of the Fox Nuisance Channel - that we all sunk to the pit of despair because we believe that we live in a Christian Coalition, conservative-dominated country. "That's not the truth," he emphasized. "That's not the truth!" The people may be liberal, but the media are rapidly becoming concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The result is that there are fewer Michael Moores, fewer people with both access to the media and willingness to utter unpopular ideas. Who but Michael Moore has called the latest allegations against Syria the shameless repetition of a script? Where are the weapons of mass destruction? And where is the incontrovertible evidence the government supposedly had but couldn't reveal to the U.N. inspectors for fear of jeopardizing "sources and methods"? Who in the broadcast media has been willing to say that the Bush presidency is illegitimate? Who in broadcasting is objecting to the Telecom Act of 1996, which has resulted in one company, Clear Channel Communications, owning more than 1,200 radio stations? Who else has objected to the blatant manipulation of the "terrorist threat level" for political purposes? The degree to which these themes, along with others (racism, labor issues, corporate abuses and gun control), make it into the popular consciousness at all is, in fact, due in substantial measure to Moore and the success of his films and books. Citing poll data on the environment, unions, and abortion, Moore said there is still good news. "We live in a very liberal country," he said. "Our fellow Americans are liberals and progressives." As far as any backlash from his Oscar speech, Moore claimed that his book sales, box office numbers and web site hits have gone up dramatically since Oscar night. The box office for "Bowling for Columbine" has exceeded any previous documentary by more than 300 percent. Moore used basic morality to underscore his opposition to the war in Iraq. "Did you go to Sunday School?" he asked. "Don't we as human beings have a shared belief that you don't take the life of another human being unless it's in self defense? Don't you think that we have to answer for this some day? If we're not going to answer for it in the hereafter, trust me, we're going to answer for it in the here and now. We're going to pay a horrible price; we all know this." His solution for getting rid of Bush is far from revolutionary: grassroots electoral politics and an alliance between the Democrats and the Green Party. Moore was only half kidding when he proposed that the best candidate might be Oprah. "She's a billionaire - she can't be bought!" he declared."Is there anyone here that doesn't believe that Oprah could beat Bush if it was just a matter of the debate?" Many of Mr. Moore's pronouncements were on the dramatic side; after all, he's really more a polemicist than a straight documentary filmmaker. That said, the rapport he has maintained with his sympathizers and the success of his films and books come from a certain simplicity and clarity to his ideas, which are, more often than not, unmistakable signs of the truth. © 2003 Shoreline Community College™