Comments on: Sicko

by: Jack the unknown

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 13:17:02 +0000

unkawill - are you insulting us and calling Abraham Lincoln a liar? Lincoln honored the those who died in the Civil War “so that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

So what you are saying is: “Why on earth do you want to be in charge of health care? You can’t do anything right!?

If America still exists, that is. There may have been a silent coup, so that the sacrifice Lincoln immortalized was indeed in vain.

by: Jessica

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:43:52 +0000

Check out another great medical short film called “The Musician Physician” at uvu.channel2.org KEYWORD Musician Physician.

by: maha

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:01:58 +0000

unkawill — You represent everything that’s wrong with America today.

Nobody wants “the government in charge of health care.” Stop being a dupe and an idiot. Watch the film and learn something.

by: unkawill

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:56:17 +0000

Why on Earth do Y’all want the government in charge of health care?

They can’t do anything right.

by: Virginia Dutch

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:57:01 +0000

Great piece, but you made me think of Steve Martin’s famous book review: “I laughed. I cried. Then I read the book.”

by: entrails

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:44:42 +0000

Worn down by the system that we would kill and die for, even as we accept the lies that make us unable to see it is, as Gloria points out, set up to exploit every aspect of our lives. Even as we would spit on and revile obviously, demonstrably better systems, simply because, as Maha and Michael say, they’re un-american. Heartbreaking.

It’s not the government we fear, it’s the corporate media that makes us afraid.

“But most heartbreaking of all is the way in which Americans passively accept the status quo. We have the means at hand to improve the quality of our lives — a representative government — and we don’t use it.”

Maha, I think we’ve been trained to consider exercising our control over government to be a waste of time. I think this is the great success of our media: many of the people who could make a difference now believe that even trying to make a difference is foolish, to the point where they ridicule people who are trying to use our system the way it was supposed to be used. So gated communities, real estate in New Zealand and fat portfolios (for the powerful, yet disenfranchised) are the acceptable response to a system that encourages the belief that we’re all already on our own.

As you say, heartbreaking. Michael Moore is my hero for putting himself out there and working to change things–even exploiting the media to work against itself. He’s a model of how to at least try, in the most effective way possible, to make people wake up.

by: moonbat

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:02:55 +0000

If you’re going to see “Sicko” be sure to go on opening weekend, if possible. This really helps a movie’s success, as the size of the opening hugely determines the number of theaters that subsequently show it. Movies are like parachutes these days, they must open well to succeed.

I just checked the multiplex near my home, and they’re showing “Sicko” this Friday. “Course plotted and laid in, Captain”.

by: Gloria

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:52:43 +0000

Very well said. “Worn out by the system” says it all. A system which isn’t even set up to work FOR citizens, just as a means to exploit them.

by: moistened bink

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:41:19 +0000

You are spot on when you say that we are controlled by being overworked, underpaid (real wages went down between 2001-06) and overly sedated by entertainment “news”.

But, that does not excuse the average citizen from being involved. I understand the frustration…I write my Senators and Reps, I bitch, moan, complain, try to educate my friends, contact my newspaper - all to naught.

But if we don’t rise up, we are nothing more than slaves. If the majority of the citizens knew that we are the only industrialized nation without universal health care, that workers in other countries get a minimum of 30 days vacation per year, that their governments actually respond to the wishes of the public……But our media is complicit in keeping all of that quiet.

Would I pay higher taxes in exchange for those conditions? You bet. We are worked to death, nickled and dimed, let go on a whim or have our jobs outsourced. Do you still wonder why this country is so angry and violent?

Plus a for profit company gets to determine whether we get the treatment that determines whether we live or die?

Yeah, greatest country on earth.