My Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now

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 H.R. 3200 -- but this bill is worthless without the amendment from Rep. Anthony Weiner that will bring us closer to the real bill that should be passed: H.R. 676. You must call AND write your members of Congress and demand that they support this 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.

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 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 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), one to your Congressperson (202-224-3121) and one to each of your two Senators (202-224-3121). To find out who represents you, click here. 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. And if you really want to drop an anvil on them, send them a snail mail letter!

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 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, California State Assemblyman Isadore Hall, Tempe, Arizona City Councilman Corey Woods, Wisconsin State Assemblyman Chris Danou, and Washington State Representative Larry 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. 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, 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.)

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! Start a website of real local news (here's an example: The Michigan Messenger). Tweet your friends and use Facebook 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 and place it in a locally-owned bank or, preferably, a credit union.

2. Get rid of all your credit cards 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 (more info here). 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. 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 -- and be sure to post your ideas in the comments 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
[e-mail]
MichaelMoore.com

 

Comments

[Mark Olmsted - Huffpost Blogger]

If you live in a gritty urban area like I do, grab an ez-reach trashpicker when you walk the dog. I fill up several bags each walk, shame the litterers, and show the young kids a different example than the ones they grow up with. And I live on the only clean streets of Hollywood.

[rckayla]

Right on Michael!!! I'm not sure why some on here do not understand what you're saying...i­t truly is beyond my understanding. We, the People, of the United States of America must start getting involved and letting our politicians know what we want them to do for us. Plain and simple as that! As I understand it, all you are doing is suggesting ways in which our government officials will listen to, and know what, the average American needs and wants to make the U.S. a better place to live. You're not suggesting a communistic, socialist agenda for a capitalist society. What you are suggesting is that WE GET INVOLVED by doing some of the activities you wrote about in your post. And I agree with you wholeheartedly! Another great suggestion would be for ALL Americans to actually go out and VOTE as a way of getting involved and letting the politicians know what WE want.

[RightsGuy]

Our fight for equal access to healthcare for all is about democracy, human rights, civil rights, and basic human decency. WE MUST JOIN TOGETHER TO FIGHT FOR OUR CIVIL RIGHTS AND BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS. Health care is a basic human right.

JOIN IN THE ACTION! The next wave of the Mobilization for Health Care for All has begun. Go here to see the locations of the 19 actions around the country: http://www.healthcare-now.org/the-next-wave-of-actions/

For more info: http://mobilizeforhealthcare.org/

[RightsGuy]

Here's a quote from Senator Bernie Sanders:. Check out the Video!

“The Dow and the Down and Out

While markets surged past 10,000, the official unemployment rate stood near 10 percent. The United States is in a unique historical position. People on top are doing extraordinarily well, but in the real world the middle class is collapsing. The top 1 percent owns more wealth then the bottom 90 percent. CEOs of large corporations earn 400 times what their workers make. That is not what America is supposed to be about. With all the issues we are dealing with - from health care to global warming to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - please do not forgot what is happening to tens of millions of our brothers and our sisters out there who are struggling hard to keep their heads above water.”

Watch the video here - http://sanders.senate.gov/unfiltered

[VikingQuest]

"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"

Great idea, I'll just go buy a house 5 times what I can afford and we'll use the law to make sure I don't have to pay for what I bought . . . seriously, what is wrong with people.

[jerrypl]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb5cEHpzX1Y

This is what I have been saying for years! I have been saying to get out from under Wall Street's clutches and writing about it for months, including two you-tube videos. This has been a Wall Street crime theft by a bunch of crime syndicates bosses/oligarchs controlling our government and economy.

It is time to actually engage in Change We Can Believe In.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

[bamboozled]

Awesome, Mike,

But from the sounds of these comments, it appears the idealistic America where anything is possible has lost out to the cynical America where, rather than taking action, people prefer to sit on their asses and wait for somebody else to have an idea so they can stomp it to shreds and get back to watching Balloon Boy or Jon & Kate.

In the immortal words of Alan Grayson: "You can lead, you can follow or you can get out of the way. And I’m telling you now to get out of the way."

[Ken Nemeth]

Nope, sorry. I appreciate Mr. Moore and his ideas. I read every HuffPo essay Moore publishes. I've read all of his books. He's entertaining as hell. I just happen to be in disagreement with him on most of his meta-ideas.
Just because me and others like me disagree with the extreme left's philosophies, however does not make us cynical.
Here are some very simple ideas - limited government, responsible lending, responsible living, the minimum safety net possible for people to be able to succeed in life. That's all I want.
Be nice to your fellow humans. Be sensible in your life choices. Work extremely hard. Always get better at what you do. Get an education. Be entreprenurial. Face the reality of the world head on.
I think these things have a heck of a better chance of making the world a better place rather than giving all the power to the government and letting them decide what's good for us.
Peace.

[research]

suggesting Limited government after decades of unwise deregulation means you want even more power to the plutocracy.

The gov already for sale,

Is that what you want?

Robber barons and serfs?

Democracy is the only defense against plutocracy.

The Banksters just extorted 214T$ in loans from the taxpayers.

The greatest heist in history.

What we need to do is outlaw ALL contribution for the Bribery they are.

All candidates get equal primes time.

We we have is government so limited and purchased it can't save us from the plutocracy.

[HamletsMill]

What is your proposal on the regulation of Credit Default Swaps? Should the U.S. Government have the power to try to regulate this market that blew up the world a year ago? What would you have done a year ago if you were Hank Paulson? Let's hear it!

As to "Face the reality of the world head on" shouldn't that include personal drafted military service by EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN of military age? I think we need to get back to the old mantra of the 60's "Change the world or die." I think every citizen of the U.S. must be sent to fight and die. It concentrates the mind wonderfully. Then those who survive can get their brokerage account and buy and sell from their lifetime in a wheelchair. I say let's put everyone's karma into one big cosmic blender and press the on button.

[bamboozled]

Ken, while I appreciate your simple ideas, they do not necessarily work together.

For example, i assume by "responsible lending" and "responsible living" you're referencing the real estate bubble at the heart of the GFC. However, it's a vast oversimplification to say, "People took out irresponsible mortgages.­" When the market has been overinflated by a deregulated finance market, average people cannot be expected to know their home is overvalued by 20 or 30 or 40%.

And I would argue that "Be nice to your fellow humans" goes entirely against a "limited government" model. When corporations and the market are allowed to act freely, the end result is pure greed, and it affects someone somewhere, whether it's the Chinese teenage girl who's reduced to slavery to produce your cheap Gap shirt or the Nigerian village that is oppressed by a western oil company-supported regime.

If you want to "Face the reality of the world head on," you have to face the reality that your comfortable way of life comes at the expense of others' extreme poverty and oppression.

[HamletsMill]

I believe the original quote came from Thomas Paine. I don't think it came from Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad.

[keepenit]

Wow, Michael, you just saved the USA! But come on Mike, take a closer look. These proposed actions are what scare people about the far left. Saying that "a moratorium on all home evictions" is needed immediately will take away many (not all, but many) peoples incentive to pay. When news breaks that Americans are "getting away" without paying a mortgage, why would anyone pay? Without the fear of being evicted, fewer and fewer people would pay. Do you propose establishing a government agency to monitor how people spend their money?

Also, demanding publicly-funded elections sounds great, but what's the $$$ amount for each election Mike? How much is appropriate for the public to pay? My guess is the public will get a little sideways when we start financing millionaires with their election pursuits.

And finally, your scariest statement that “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 second rule is "Is this for the common good?" screams of communism. Who will decide what's "for the common good” Michael?" Me? You? Congress? What if more than 50% of the people think your movies “are not in the common good” Mike?

Other statements, such as “we must cease using the internal combustion engine” and “take your money out of the stock marker” are just silly. A healthy mix between things that will never happen and bad advice.

[provgrays]

That's a great list but lobbyists and the influence of money, oceans of it, are the primary blocks to returning this government to we, who pay for it. You are a true man of character, Mr. Moore.
Emulating you should be added to that list.

[BlueMrsKitty]

Thanks Michael! I just wrote Feinstein and Boxer snail mail letters. May I add an additional action item? Can HuffPosters in KY, IA, AZ, UT, AL, OK, WY, NC and NY) write letters to the editor asking why their member of Congress has Medicare but they don't want us to have a public option.

The following are on Medicare:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), and Rep. Peter King (R-NY)

[MossyOak]

Thank you Michael. If everyone did JUST ONE of those, it would be huge.

[ObamaSheeple]

#3 is the most important. Most everything else will PROBABLY fail without it. Very good recommendations. Thanks.

[wethepeople3884]

I figure we have 60 democrats, 55 of which are actually democrats so if we can actually vote out those 5 who are running for re-election in the primaries and switch 10 - 15 more maybe this administration can finally start to take a liberal approach to this, not even democratic and certainly not centrist but progressive liberal. Grassroots were fed up with the status quo when JFK inspired a nation, MLK again took up a huge cause whos followers were grassroots who devoted their life to change and I think we proved that the grassroots liberal campaign is strong enough that we can elect our first black president and a man of liberal morals and true brilliance, so why not do it again but this time for total control of congress who is so purposely calculating that they would desire the country to fail if it meant obama would fail and this is just unacceptable!

[Ken Nemeth]

Part of me is hoping that this actually happens, because the backlash in 2010 will result in the largest switch from Democratic to Republican House and Senate seats in US history. If you think that more than 1 or 2 of the items on Moore's list are worth doing then you are in such a small minority of what most Americans would want that, with all due respect, you are living in the wrong country.
The things Moore is advocating for are straight up Communist ideals. JFK would never be associated with anything on Moore's list. JFK would be a centrist/left leaning Republican in today's political environment.
And I am not beating the McCarthy drum. Communism is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just not what our country is about. We are about empowering our citizens, not creating a Nation-Nanny-State that pats them on the head and tells them what's good for them.
The best thing that has come out of this is that Barack Obama is more centrist than I ever would have believed. He understands that a TON of people don't want a public option, nationalized everything, or the government running everything. I have a lot more faith in him than you and I didn't even vote for him. He at least understands that using the power of the supermajority in ramming a full liberal agenda down our throats would result in huge losses for the Democratic party in 2010.

[wethepeople3884]

What did you think I meant when I was talking about the changes in congress? I was talking about the 2010 election. I dont know what else you could think I was referring to. Im glad you realize that Obama is far more centrist than the country originally thought as a lot of conservatives cannot seem to grasp that very obvious fact up until this point. Moore's policies are not communist - that would be a revolution followed by a dissolution of federal and state government and a completely egalitarian society - I completely fail to see how Moore stressing political activism and promoting reform in which congress actually effecivetly addreses our issues of today. These are not communist policies - these are liberal policies. And you are wholly inaccurate that JFK would be conservative by today's standards as this country is more conservative today than it was in the 60s - just look at how much more liberal Europe is.

[wethepeople3884]

This was not the case 50 years ago. JFK was one of the few presidents to actually call himself a liberal as president. He was a tremendous proponent of social reform and followed that path to his assassination. Most of his goals were never realized due to his rather brief time in office. Much of the social reform he espoused was accomplished by LBJ's great society in which many of the same avenues were addressed that we hope to do again today to pull our laws to reflect the major hurdles of this generation - LBJ addressed poverty, medical care, equality, immigration and environmental reform. Most of these if not all were on JFKs agenda.
I know Moore is being optimistic and I would say unrealistic but it is important to make sure our representatives are voting for that which represents the will of the people or the majority. You have to realize that while a good chunk does not want an option, the majority continues to want one and with an opt out clause it should be easier for states that are largely republican to make sure they opt out. But we need this for the country - the nation was ready for broad sweeping changes in policy because we voted in the guy that was waving that flag. I have not lost hope in Obama yet but I do feel like he has not lived up to his share of the bargain so far.

[research]

Communism is a particular form of government, that trusts human nature.

That is not what Moore is selling.

A Democracy free from of robbery/co­ntribution­,

to allow the 51% to regulate the economy, to create money, to enforce laws.

A regulate fair market, regulated capitalism is the best system every created.

Unregulated money is crash and plutocracy.

The American Democracy is based on the distrust of humans and groups. That's why there a three independent parts, that why it's so hard to amend the constitution, that's why there is a bill of rights.

The communist "systems" fail to understand human nature, and concentrate too much power in too few hands, on the assumption they will be good people.

If you are going to use the word, at least look it up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism

[themodernleader]

Very profound, foresighted, practical, American ideas and ideals. Thank you, Patriot Michael Moore.

[unch]

there you go again, but you are right as always. thought without action is no understanding, useless.
will do, and together, to get this country back from those crooks and spineless. best days are ahead.
PBS Frontline: Warning, Hero against the Traitors, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/

[DHubbard]

And See: "Stock Shock-the Short Selling of the American Dream" so you know what the #$$@ is going on in the stock market to steal your money!! www.stockshockmovie.com or Amazon has the DVD