There's a singular moment that stands out in Michael Moore's new film, SiCKO. The moment bursts your heart with joy and gnashes your teeth with fury. That's a tough trick to pull off.
Actually, there are many moments that stand out in this wonderful, fascinating, heartbreaking, hilarious, infuriating, uplifting documentary about the American health care industry. But the moment I'm referring to has nothing to do with the film's subject matter, which is getting all the deserved attention.
The moment in question comes during the highly-publicized sequence when Moore has brought a boatload of seriously-ill 9/11 rescue volunteers to Gitmo for treatment. Unable to land, they put ashore instead at Cuba. But the specific moment isn't about any of that, isn't about health care at all.
Just before Moore and his companions are set to leave Cuba, they're told that a local fire department has heard there are 9/11 rescue heroes and would like to meet them. When the Moore group arrives at the station, there are the firefighters standing at full-salute attention. The Cubans explain they wish they could have joined the Americans to help out on 9/11, but add that all firefighters are brothers, all rescue volunteers are honored.
As the Americans movingly head down the line to shake hands with the Cuban firefighters, suddenly they all break into hugs.
It's a glorious, emotional scene, that swells the heart with the sense of decency from both sides. The Cubans nobly reaching out, and the Americans who nobly risked their lives.
And at the same moment, your body clenches when you realize that this is what President George Bush threw away.
After 9/11, as horrific as that day was, there was an apparent thought in the air: that through tragedy, the world had come together. The entire world. Friends and enemies alike all over the globe were holding vigils for the stricken-America, knowing that in this disaster, everyone was connected. If there was to be a fight against terrorists, here was the world opening its door and its heart to America. United, the world had a chance to connect and work together to achieve whatever heights it wanted.
And President George Bush threw it all away.
He not only lost the rarest chance of uniting the entire world, but did the unimaginable: he got the world -- ready to support America -- to distrust, even in-part hate the United States to depths this country has never known.
There was our enemy, Cuba -- a nation we've been at conflict with for half a century, a nation off-limits to Americans without special permission -- standing at ready-salute to the heroic men and women who risked themselves in the 9/11 attack. Five years later, still swelling with honor towards them. Not just any nation, but Cuba. Our bitter enemy. Hugging Americans in support for 9/11. Still standing by us, five years later.
And President George Bush threw this all away.
He can take out his bullhorn and yowl all he wants about "fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here." And maybe some foolish people of the 26% still supporting him will believe that that makes sense. But he had the world on our side without even having to commit one solider or one dollar to that fight.
"I don't know how he copes with it," Donald Burnham Ensenat told the Washington Post, of his embattled friend, President George Bush. Another of the president's longtime friends, K. Michael Conaway (R-Tex.), remarked how "worn down" Mr. Bush appears. "It's an incredibly heavy load. When you ask men and women to take risks, to send them into war knowing they might not come home, that's got to be an incredible burden to have on your shoulders."
Oh, my, yes. Huge. Of course, imagine the burden on those men and women actually taking the risks. Imagine trying to figure out how they cope with it. But let's break our hearts over the poor fellow who sent them into hell, dragged the United States down with them, and threw away the supporting unity of the entire world.
On the Fourth of July, we turn our thoughts to the Statue of Liberty, standing tall in the harbor, welcoming immigrants from around the world to the freedom of our shores. For 232 years, we have been a beacon to all such people and such hopes, and those around the world have looked at that Statue with arm raised and flame held high to stand for all that is good, noble, glorious and important about America.
And President George Bush threw all that away.