Fahrenheit 9/11...What Was Bush Thinking?

Sitting in my fifth grade class my teacher Ms.Baxter inconspicuously spoke to another teacher by the door. She looked as if she was contemplating something and asked my class if we all knew what terrorists were. A polish boy named Piotr who had just transferred to my school raised his hand anxiously. He explained that terrorists were people who didn’t like a group of people and tried hurting them. I still didn’t understand but being nine years old I did not question anything. Even after I heard the death toll was passed three thousand, I still didn’t question why it happened. My only question was why was the Twin Towers hit along with the Pentagon? After viewing the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 the first time, I just hated Bush. But I hated Bush for all the wrong reasons. I hated him because he was a poor leader and because he just sat in that damn classroom reading the book with the elementary school children. But after viewing this documentary for the second time, I dislike Bush for a whole new set of reasons.
What made me most angry was the hypocrisy. There are people out there who join the army because they truly want to defend this country, some for financial reasons, and some join because they have no other option. This is the case for the Lipscomb family who lost their son to the war in Iraq. Lina Lipscomb could not afford higher education for her children and so since the time they were very small she implanted the seed of the army being a possibility. She was successful at recruiting her own children because bother her son and daughter enlisted and served time in Iraq. Unfortunately her son was killed. The problem is that many people are ignorant to why we are in this war. The problem is that many people buy into the medias tactics of fear. Fear of terrorism and the fear that soon we are going to be under attack once again.
But it wasn’t even the scene of Ms. Lipscomb crying so hard she could hardly remain on her feet that made me angry. It was the fact that the same people who would not sign a bill to get us away from war opposed to towards it, would not enlist their own children in the war. Media has made it look like such a glamorous deal. You get to wear the uniform that people everywhere recognize, you get to protect a nation something so much bigger than oneself, and you get to have all these opportunities in the army itself. You can learn a craft such as music production or play an instrument or even play a professional sport. These congress men have no problem the army recruiting people as long it’s not the rich white kids from the suburban areas of town. As long as its not someone importants child.
At the end of the film Michael Moore tries to enlist several congress mens children into the army. No one signed up for it. I have to say however it doesn’t surprise me that teenagers from more affluent neighborhoods don’t feel the need to join the army but it does surprise me that the people who support the cause won’t give back to the cause. If Former President Bush really admired the “men and women who help protect this country” as he says he does, then he would not have cut their pay down thirty- three percent. He would not deny them health care or leave them out in the street like many are because they cannot afford the cost of living on a disabled salary (Sicko, Moore).
I believe in practicing what you preach and if Sarah Palins son was willing to join the army and actually is serving as we speak, then why can’t all the other congressmen and women have the same ideology? It’s a sad day in America when the American people have no control over what goes on here, even if we make a little but of noise we aren’t heard. At least not on this issue.

My reaction to "Bowling For Columbine" a documentary by Michael Moore

As the American people we tune into the ten o’clock news every night. We get comfortable in our pajamas and the family dog and settle to regard what has happened while we were preoccupied with life. But who knew that a source of information such as the news that we trust would also be a source of fear. In the documentary “Bowling for Columbine” directed by Michael Moore, we see this behavior in the media.
In April 20, 1999, two teenagers from Littleton, Colorado shot and killed twelve students and one teacher, wounding many others. This event caused much havoc all over the country. Everyone was afraid but most importantly mourning this tragedy. After this, every Tom Dick an Harry had a theory of what caused these two boys to turn guns on their school.
Soon the alternative rock artist Marilyn Manson was being blamed. “I represent what everyone’s afraid of…we forget about the President and Monica Lewinsky and that we’re dropping bombs across seas…their objective is keep everyone afraid and they will consume,” says Marilyn Manson in response to being blamed for what these boys did (Moore 2002). And “consume” is exactly what we do.
When the turn of the century was approaching in 1999, there was something called the Y2K scare. Essentially the Y2K scare warned people that the end of the world was coming as soon as the clock struck twelve midnight on December 31, 1999. People stocked up on water and food preparing for “the end of the world”. On December 31, 1999 at twelve o’clock midnight everyone waited. We kissed each other and said Happy New Year and my mom popped a bottle of Champagne. The end of the world had not come close to nearing us.
Most recently we have had the swine flu. The medias solution was to buy hand sanitizer, stay away from people who had flu-like symptoms and some people even bought masks to cover their nose and mouth. Although it has claimed the lives of people all over the world, it has made people crazy. In china a group of Americans are being quarantined in a hotel because they may be infected with the swine flu also known as the H1 N1 virus.
This isn’t the only was we are bamboozled into fear by the media. In the time of the Columbine shootings and even today, the most common suspect is Hispanic and African American males. This is another reason that the Columbine murders came as such a shock. So not only do we have to be afraid of possible terrorist attacks, sickly and deadly flues, but we have to be afraid of Hispanic and Black males (Moore 2002).
It’s amazing that we regard the media as such a reliable source of information. And the messages after we watch that ten o’clock news cozy on the couch is, “be afraid, be very afraid.”