Sunday, March 7, 2010

Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now"

"Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now"

You've Seen the Movie -- Now It's Time to ACT!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Friends,

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:

*FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DO IMMEDIATELY:*

*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. You must
call AND write your members of Congress and demand its passage
<http://www.pnhp.org/amendment/>, 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
<http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1826/show>.

*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
<http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/03/how-nation%E2%80%99s-only-state-owned-bank-became-envy-wall-street>
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
<http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/saving-the-big-3-for-you-and-me-a-message-from-michael-moore>
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
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/>), one to your Congressperson
(202-224-3121 <https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml>) and
one to each of your two Senators (202-224-3121
<http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm>).
To find out who represents you, click here
<http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/>. 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
<http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/>. And if you really want to drop an
anvil on them, send them a snail mail letter
<http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/>!

*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 <mailto:photos@michaelmoore.com> 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
<http://www.rbf.org/annualreviews/annualreviews_show.htm?root_doc_id=907315&display_doc_id=940605&fullnav=2>,
California State Assemblyman Isadore Hall
<http://photos.essence.com/galleries/icdrm2008images4isadorehall>,
Tempe, Arizona City Councilman Corey Woods
<http://www.tempe.gov/elected/woods.htm>, Wisconsin State Assemblyman
Chris Danou <http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=67068>, and
Washington State Representative Larry Seaquist
<http://housedemocrats.wa.gov/members/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 <http://projects.nytimes.com/creditcrisis/recipients/table>.* 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 <http://www.showdowninchicago.org/>, 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
<http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/spread-the-word-capitalism-did-this>.)

*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 <https://www.blogger.com/start>! Start a website of real
local news (here's an example: The Michigan Messenger
<http://michiganmessenger.com/>). Tweet your friends
<https://twitter.com/> and use Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/> 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
<http://projects.nytimes.com/creditcrisis/recipients/table> and place it
in a locally-owned bank or, preferably, a credit union
<http://www.creditunion.coop/cu_locator/quickfind.php>.

*2. Get rid of all your credit cards
<http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/04/09/michael-moore-endorses-chase-boycott/>
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
<http://www.ueunion.org/org_steps.html> (more info here
<http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/how/howto.cfm>). 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
<http://www.ncba.coop/abcoop_howto.cfm>. 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
<mailto:photos@michaelmoore.com> -- and be sure to post your ideas in
the comments
<http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/michael-moores-action-plan-15-things-every-american-can-do-right-now>
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 <mailto:MMFlint@aol.com>
MichaelMoore.com <http://www.michaelmoore.com/>

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