Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every
American Can Do Right Now!
Folks ask me what the 'S' stands for. SERENITY. That's the ticket, gang. I could not stick my hand in the fire as many times as I HAVE without staying in the SERENITY ZONE. Try it. You can do anything--confront any asshole --if you smile, are entertaining, whimsical, make jokes and stay very serene. Ya' think I coulda gone to the gates of G.M without that serenity? Wherever serenity goes, good sense of humor travels right behind it. And you can get in ANY door with wit.FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DOFriends, It's the #1 question I'm constantly asked after people see my movie: "OK -- so now what can I do?!" You want something to do? Well, you've come to the right place! 'Cause I got 15 things you and I can do right now to fight back and try to fix this very broken system. Here they are:
1. Declare
a moratorium on all home evictions. Not one more family should be
thrown
out of their home. The banks must adjust their monthly mortgage payments
to be in
line with
what people's homes are now truly worth -- and what they can afford. Also,
it
must be
stated by law: If you lose your job, you cannot be tossed out of your home.
2. Congress
must join the civilized world and expand Medicare For All Americans.
A single,
nonprofit source must run a universal health care system that covers everyone.
Medical
bills are now the #1 cause of bankruptcies and evictions in this country.
Medicare
For All
will end this misery. The bill to make this happen is called H.R. 3200
(but only with
Rep. Anthony
Weiner's amendment). You must call AND write your members of
Congress
and demand its passage, no compromises allowed.
3. Demand
publicly-funded elections and a prohibition on elected officials leaving
office
and becoming lobbyists. Yes, those very members of Congress who solicit
and
receive
millions of dollars from wealthy interests must vote to remove ALL money
from
our electoral
and legislative process. Tell your members of Congress they must support
campaign
finance bill H.R.1826.
4. Each
of the 50 states must create a state-owned public bank like they have in
North
Dakota. Then congress MUST reinstate all the strict pre-Reagan regulations
on all
commercial
banks, investment firms, insurance companies -- and all the other industries
that have
been savaged by deregulation: Airlines, the food industry, pharmaceutical
companies
-- you name it. If a company's primary motive to exist is to make a profit,
then
it needs
a set of stringent rules to live by -- and the first rule is "Do no harm."
The second
rule:
The question must always be asked -- "Is this for the common good?" (Click
here for
some info
about the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.)
5. Save
this fragile planet and declare that all the energy resources above and
beneath
the ground are owned collectively by all of us. Just like they do it in
Sarah
Palin's
socialist Alaska. We only have a few decades of oil left. The public must
be the
owners
and landlords of the natural resources and energy that exists within our
borders or
we will
descend further into corporate anarchy. And when it comes to burning fossil
fuels
to transport
ourselves, we must cease using the internal combustion engine and instruct
our
auto/transportation
companies to rehire our skilled workforce and build mass transit (clean
buses,
light rail, subways, bullet trains, etc.) and new cars that don't contribute
to climate
change.
(For more on this, here's a proposal I wrote in December.) Demand that
General
Motors'
de facto chairman, Barack Obama, issue a JFK man-on-the-moon-style
challenge
to turn our country into a nation of trains and buses and subways. For
Pete's
sake,
people, we were the ones who invented (or perfected) these damn things
in the first
place!!
FIVE
THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE CONGRESS AND THE
PRESIDENT
LISTEN
TO US:
1. Each
of us must get into the daily habit of taking 5 minutes to make four brief
calls:
One to the President (202-456-1414), one to your Congressperson
(202-224-3121)
and one to each of your two Senators (202-224-3121). To find out who
represents
you, click here. Take just one minute on each of these calls to let them
know
how you
expect them to vote on a particular issue. Let them know you will have
no
hesitation
voting for a primary opponent -- or even a candidate from another party
-- if
they don't
do our bidding. Trust me, they will listen. If you have another five minutes,
click
here to
send them each an email. And if you really want to drop an anvil on them,
send
them a
snail mail letter!
2. Take
over your local Democratic Party. Remember how much fun you had with all
those
friends and neighbors working together to get Barack Obama elected? YOU
DID
THE IMPOSSIBLE.
It's time to re-up! Get everyone back together and go to the monthly
meeting
of your town or county Democratic Party -- and become the majority that
runs it!
There
will not be many in attendance and they will either be happy or in shock
that you
and the
Obama Revolution have entered the room looking like you mean business.
President
Obama's agenda will never happen without mass grass roots action -- and
he
won't
feel encouraged to do the right thing if no one has his back, whether it's
to stand with
him, or
push him in the right direction. When you all become the local Democratic
Party,
send me
a photo of the group and I'll post it on my website.
3. Recruit
someone to run for office who can win in your local elections next year
-- or,
better yet, consider running for office yourself! You don't have to settle
for the
incumbent
who always expects to win. You can be our next representative! Don't believe
it can
happen? Check out these examples of regular citizens who got elected: State
Senator
Deb Simpson, California State Assemblyman Isadore Hall, Tempe, Arizona
City
Councilman
Corey Woods, Wisconsin State Assemblyman Chris Danou, and Washington
State
Representative Larry Seaquist. The list goes on and on -- and you should
be on it!
4. Show
up. Picket the local branch of a big bank that took the bailout money.
Hold
vigils
and marches. Consider civil disobedience. Those town hall meetings are
open to you,
too (and
there's more of us than there are of them!). Make some noise, have some
fun, get
on the
local news. Place "Capitalism Did This" signs on empty foreclosed homes,
closed
down businesses,
crumbling schools and infrastructure. (You can download them from my
website.)
5. Start
your own media. You. Just you (or you and a couple friends). The mainstream
media
is owned by corporate America and, with few exceptions, it will never tell
the whole
truth
-- so you have to do it! Start a blog! Start a website of real local news
(here's an
example:
The Michigan Messenger). Tweet your friends and use Facebook to let them
know what
they need to do politically. The daily papers are dying. If you don't fill
that
void,
who will?
FIVE
THINGS WE SHOULD DO TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND OUR
LOVED
ONES UNTIL WE GET THROUGH THIS MESS:
1. Take
your money out of your bank if it took bailout money and place it in a
locally-owned
bank or, preferably, a credit union.
2. Get
rid of all your credit cards but one -- the kind where you have to pay
up at the
end of
the month or you lose your card.
3. Do not
invest in the stock market. If you have any extra cash, put it away in
a
savings
account or, if you can, pay down on your mortgage so you can own your home
as
soon as
possible. You can also buy very safe government savings bonds or T-bills.
Or just
buy your
mother some flowers.
4. Unionize
your workplace so that you and your coworkers have a say in how
your business
is run. Here's how to do it (more info here). Nothing is more American
than democracy,
and democracy shouldn't be checked at the door when you enter your
workplace.
Another way to Americanize your workplace is to turn your business into
a
worker-owned
cooperative. You are not a wage slave. You are a free person, and you
giving
up eight hours of your life every day to someone else is to be properly
compensated
and respected.
5. Take
care of yourself and your family. Sorry to go all Oprah on you, but she's
right:
Find a
place of peace in your life and make the choice to be around people who
are not
full of
negativity and cynicism. Look for those who nurture and love. Turn off
the TV and
the Blackberry
and go for a 30-minute walk every day. Eat fruits and vegetables and cut
down on
anything that has sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white flour or too much
sodium
(salt)
in it (and, as Michael Pollan says, "Eat (real) food, not too much, mostly
plants"). Get
seven
hours of sleep each night and take the time to read a book a month. I know
this
sounds
like I've turned into your grandma, but, dammit, take a good hard look
at Granny
-- she's
fit, she's rested and she knows the names of both of her U.S. Senators
without
having
to Google them. We might do well to listen to her. If we don't put our
own "oxygen
mask"
on first (as they say on the airplane), we will be of no use to the rest
of the nation in
enacting
any of this action plan!
I'm sure
there are many other ideas you can come up with on how we can build this
movement.
Get creative. Think outside the politics-as-usual box. BE SUBVERSIVE!
Think
of that local action no one else has tried. Behave as if your life depended
on it. Be
bold!
Try doing something with reckless abandon. It may just liberate you and
your
community
and your nation.
And when
you act, send me your stories, your photos and your video -- and be sure
to
post your
ideas in the comments beneath this letter on my site so they can be shared
with
millions.
C'mon people
-- we can do this! I expect nothing less of all of you, my true and trusted
fellow
travelers!
Yours,
Michael
Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
Michael Moore is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker and author. He directed and produced Roger & Me, (where he busts into General Motors,) Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko. He has also written seven books, most recently, Mike’s Election Guide 2008
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