Fahrenheit 9/11

I have just returned from viewing Fahrenheit 9/11.

Putting my feelings into words is tough. I have lived the last 2 years and nearly 10 months since 9/11 in a state of fear. Not a day passes when I don't look strangely at the sky and think about those planes of death. When I am in a big city and have to enter a high rise building(such as the one I was in on the morning of 9-11-2001), I wonder if that building will be next. Therefore, a large portion of this film was very difficult for me to watch. My life has changed since then. I have moved to a new life and job. I have seen the fear and sorrow in friends and family. I have watched as people who live near me grieve over the loss of family members in Iraq. Seeing those signs outside local churches for the funeral service of a lost soldier is very difficult, even if you didn't know that person. The lives of everyone in the community are effected.

Watching the Lila Lipscomb of Flint in this film brought me to weepy tears. Every part of my body was wrenched. The film ended over and hour ago and I still am finding it hard to calm myself. You see Lila lost her son in Iraq. He was a soldier who signed up to protect his country and get a college education. Instead he was lost in the Iraq war which was fought under a blanket of lies from our federal government.

This is the true tragedy.

The film made me realize with even more conviction, that the terrorists we are fighting are our own fears. We fear that terrorists could strike at any time, anywhere. So, we let the government search us to an alarming degree before we step on an airplane. They still allow weapons on the planes, I mean matches and lighters are definitely items which could be used as a weapon as Moore points out in the film. We fear the tragedy could happen again, so we trust those security people with our lives.

We fear so much that we have given up many of our freedoms in the USA Patriot Act. We have allowed our representatives in congress to vote for this and many other bills without even reading them! Why do we allow this? I fear our congress when it votes for laws without reading what is IN the law.

BUT I decided while traveling home from the theatre, that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was completely right about one thing... "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" So, from now on I will not be giving fear the priority in any facet of my existence.

How do we fight against fear as a group? We vote on November 2nd. We vote against those who got us into this mess. We vote to oust GW Bush and his crew of corrupt cronies. We must vote against those who continue to support the Patriot Act EVEN AFTER SEEING ITS LACK OF EFFECTIVENESS IN CATCHING TERRORISTS. We must vote against those who have failed to protect us.

In short...IT IS TIME FOR THEM TO GO!