Dear Michael Moore

dear michael moore,
by gabriele zamparini

Dear Michael Moore,

I am writing you this “open letter” in friendship and solidarity. You are famous, rich and powerful. I am none of the above. But we both belong to the anti war movement and both are working to contribute to a better and more just world.

I have recently read your last two posts in your website. “My first thoughts after the election...” posted on Thursday, November 4th, 2004 and “17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists...” posted on Friday, November 5th, 2004. Since you start with “Dear Friends,” as a friend I would like to answer.

With all the respect, I find both of them dangerous and immoral.

“My first thoughts after the election...” is a list of all the US military personal killed in Iraq. Didn’t you have any thoughts for the 100,000 Iraqi civilians (most of them women and children) murdered by the US lead coalition forces? Any thoughts at all for those Iraqi, men, women and children, raped and tortured by the US military personal?

In “17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists...” you write jokes and, trying to cheer the anti war people up, make fun of the moment. I could understand your point of view (let’s fight with humor and let’s have fun while doing so) before the elections. But now, keep joking and making fun is – in my judgment – completely useless and, frankly, immoral.

Life is a mixture of comedy and tragedy and denying the latter is a tragedy itself. There are moments in history and in our lives when we must look at this tragedy in all its reality, without trying to make it more ‘manageable’. Massive crimes against humanity have been committed. By our governments. In our name. With our tax money. These crimes are going on. It’s time for us, the anti war people around the world, to stop laughing and to assume our responsibility. It’s time to understand the tragedy in all its darkness and enormity. It’s time for outrage. And action.

This may not be the law of the show business. But certainly is the law of human conscience as understood by all the ordinary people around the world, without boundaries.

In solidarity, Gabriele Zamparini