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Moore's Appearance In Green Bay Energizes Both Supporters
And Protestors
by Bob
Lowe
October 25, 2004
"Fahrenheit
9/11" director Michael Moore flew into Green Bay on Saturday,
the 42nd of his 60-stop "Slacker Tour 2004" that
he plans to make prior to the election Nov. 2. His goal is
to rally younger voters to go to the polls and to do everything
possible to make sure that George Bush is not re-elected president.
"Young people make up the largest block of non-voters
in the nation," the liberal activist, author and Academy
Award-winning documentarian ("Bowling for Columbine")
said. "There are 40 million people between the ages of
18 and 29 who could make a difference in this election."
As
promised, he and his assistants gave away clean underwear
and Ramen noodles to young people in the audience who said
they will vote on Nov. 2. Moore’s sold-out appearance
at the Weidner Center at the University of Wisconsin-Green
Bay generated a warm and enthusiastic response among the nearly
4,000 supporters who attended his two presentations. But it
also energized a group of about 100 protesters, who shouted
angry anti-Moore slogans outside the auditorium and prompted
another group of dissenters inside the hall to walk out en
masse as part of a planned protest in the middle of his speech.
There was no violence. Police and security teams kept the
pro- and anti-Moore groups apart. Those protesting carried
signs that read "Osama Bin Moore," "Moore Is
Less," "Moore of the Shame," "Kerry =
Traitor" and "Flush the Johns," a reference
to the Democratic presidential ticket of John Kerry and John
Edwards.
There was a much smaller group of Moore backers who carried
signs that stated "Bush Means War" and "Billionaires
For Bush."
Through
it all, Moore kept his cool and composure. When people in
the audience interrupted his speech with shouted comments,
Moore incorporated what they said into his multi media presentation,
which had a picture of the White House with a moving van in
front of it on a video screen behind him.
He
told the overwhelmingly supportive crowd that unlike a Bush
rally, "people weren’t required to sign a loyalty
oath to get in." He told one persistent critic in the
audience, "Sir you sound angry. There is medication for
that." When the group staged the walkout, Moore led the
audience in a chant of the Steam song, "Na Na Kiss Him
Good Bye" (Na, Na Na, Na, Hey, Hey Hey, Goodbye").
"Maybe they are going down to the enlistment office.
Because if they support the war, they should go fight it,"
he said.
Moore
even had some nice thing to say for those Republicans who
chose to stay and listen to his message. "When John Kerry
takes over the White House on Jan. 20, he will treat the Republicans
better than they treated blacks, Hispanics, the poor, homosexuals,
older people and students," he said. "We will bring
Republican troops home, not just Democrats. We will provide
jobs and medical insurance to Republicans as well as Democrats.
And we will let the Republicans – whom I consider to
be a deviant form of the human species – marry each
other."
That line drew one of many standing ovations and prolonged
laughter from the audience. Moore has become a polarizing
figure in this year’s presidential election, particularly
since the release of "Fahrenheit 9/11." The documentary,
now available on DVD, is a scathing indictment of the Bush
Administration’s handling of the War on Terrorism since
the terrorist attack on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. Moore
considers the War in Iraq a misguided mission that diverted
attention from the actual terrorists and their leader, Osama
Bin Laden. In the film and at a press conference prior to
his speech, Moore repeated the explosive charge that the Bush
Administration made special arrangements to transport members
of the Saudi Arabian royal family and some of Bin Laden’s
relatives out of the U.S. shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorists
attacks.
"Not only that, they used a plane normally reserved for
the White House press corps," Moore told reporter prior
to his talk. "How many of you knew that? Why isn’t
the press, except for one newspaper in Washington, reporting
that?".
He said it was legitimate for him to raise the hotly debated
opinion whether this was done "because of the $1.4 billion
that the Saudi Royal family has invested in businesses owned
by the Bushes, the Cheneys and the Rumsfelds." Moore
leveled some of his harshest criticisms on the U.S. press
corps, whom he said failed to properly inform the American
people about the issues that led to the war in Iraq. "They
wanted to put on a helmet and ride a tank and play soldier,"
he said about the "embedded reporters" who traveled
with the invading American forces.
Moore said the Pentagon has admitted that none of the first
50 targets struck by U.S. planes in Iraq hit enemy soldiers
or Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his henchmen. "Which
means we killed a lot of innocent civilians, men, women and
children," he said. "I believe we have committed
the ultimate immorality in Iraq.
He said Bush’s claim that he will not bring back the
draft "is one of the biggest lies of this administration,"
he said. "They are running out of troops. Who... is going
to volunteer for this fiasco?"
Moore said he fears "there is no quick solution and no
easy and pretty way out of this war." But he said Kerry
holds the best hope of bringing it to an end soon and urged
the students to vote for him.
AN AMERICAN STORY CONCERT – Those who
claim that a predominantly white choral group lacks the ethnic
credentials to perform African-American music missed a rousing
concert this past Friday that put a lie to that claim.
The Lawrence University Concert Choir, Chorale and Women’s
and Men’s Choirs rocked the rafters of LU’s Memorial
Chapel with some rousing renditions of black spirituals and
gospel selections in a concert entitled "An American
Story: A Celebration of Life"
The choirs were directed by LU professors Richard Bjella and
Phillip Swan, as well as special guest conductor Brazeal Dennard,
a retired supervisor of vocal music for the Detroit Public
Schools and an adjunct professor of music at Wayne State University.
Melody Ng was the pianist for the evening.
The choristers did every thing in a soulful way, swaying their
bodies as they belted out the music. Their delivery was flawless.
The songs included such familiar tunes as "Ev’ry
Time I Feel The Spirit," "The Battle of Jericho"
and "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child."
But the show stopper was "Great Day," performed
in a upbeat style by the combined choirs. Bjella caught the
spirit of the piece as he moved around the stage like a Bapist
minister rousing a choir. The near capacity crowd gave the
choirs a prolonged standing ovation at the end.
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