April 23, 2010 – Happy 56th Birthday Michael Moore

Mike & Friends Blog

Donna Smith

Donna Smith, American SiCKO, is a national single-payer healthcare advocate and community organizer with the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

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April 23rd, 2010 12:11 PM

April 23, 2010 – Happy 56th Birthday Michael Moore

By Donna Smith

Happy 56, Michael. Thank you for doing all the courageous things and the fun things you have done in your 56 years. Our nation would be far less just than it is right now without your films, your humor, your courage, your talent and your unwillingness to just throw in the towel when our democracy gets less democratic and harder to defend.

1954 was a good year, I think, but things were so very different then. It was also my birth year. My dad and yours could work hard, own a decent home, help us with our scouting activities and even take a nifty Midwestern vacation every summer without going broke. You and I grew up believing we could make a difference even as some pretty awful things unfolded around us. War. Civil rights battles. Assasinations. The nightly news reports on television filled our minds with images of the worst of times while we were living in our fairly comfortable environments and perhaps also learning we wanted a better, more peaceful and just world in the future.

Though I share a birth year with you, my life has not had the impact that yours has. Yet because of your genius, because of your humanity, my life has been elevated out of the darkness of bankruptcy and eviction and fear and shame. You chose to tell my story in one of your films and because of that, I have this second chance to try again to make my time here matter. I know I am not the only one you have lifted.

I sat today having lunch in the warm spring breeze in Washington, DC, and thought what a different nation this has been with your voice and your films in it. Precious few on the left have had a voice in recent years. From the Reagan years through Bush I and Bush II, the wealthy conservatives held court over the weaker among us. Many were crushed – if only in spirit. You gave us some dignity.

So, today as you turn 56, I hope you’ll be surrounded with people and things you love. And I hope those who share my wishes for many more years of sharing our national journey with you will leave their wishes here too. Perhaps they’ll do one good thing or two today just because they want to make the nation a bit more just – and perhaps they’ll let you and me know what that effort will be.

May someone make you laugh today, and may you always enjoy all you have earned for being bold and lifting so many people out of the din. Happy birthday, Michael. From one very grateful American SiCKO.