on a trip that found me passing through
flint, michigan
i noticed in the local
rag
that
michael moore’s
latest creation,
bowling for
columbine
, was playing at local theatres to dismal reviews. seeing the
headlines took me back to my adolescent days when
roger &
me
was opening in middle of flint’s of decades long
nadir
. at the time it was a seminal moment and moore was a hero of
sorts.
it’s really impossible to describe the effect that
roger &
me
had on me at the time, what with my father being in “management”
and countless friends and aquantances being on one side of the
fence or another. i mean, flint was ground zero for the
1937 sitdown strike
and played an important part in the development of the
american labour movement
. these are powerful things to comtemplate when you’re young and
full of vim and vigor. so, michael held a special place in my
heart over the years, rightly or wrongly. and so, it was with a
sense of “when worlds collide” that i read
joshua’s
charge that
moore loses his heart
:
“Now, the point of my piece here isn’t to discredit
Moore’s flawed facts and arguments, but rather to point out what I
think is a surprisingly heartless and disrespectful tack for him to
take. No doubt Moore comes from an area that has its share of
violence and gun-nuts. But this movie is a 180-degree reversal from
the “old” Michael Moore who used to stand up for those hard-working
men who enjoyed their hunting and supported the NRA. He comes
across as snarky and vindictive, and leaves no room for his former
base to agree with him without accepting his lopsided caricature of
them. Since he started hanging out with the Hollywood and D.C.
celebrity scene in the past five years, its been clear that Moore
has lost touch with the common man. But the fact that he can sell
out his base in such a snide, self-serving and imbalanced way; yet
expect a good reception by opening it in Flint is making me think
that he’s lost touch with his senses, too (at least his sense of
propriety).”