Bowling for Michael Moore
My neighbor Joe worked for General Motors as a plant manager in Lansing, Michigan between the 1950's - 80's. Resembling a repentant Robert McNamara he describes a zeitgeist within the company that serves as a working starting point for where we are now and how we've arrived.
In 1940 - age 16 - Joe sat in a Canadian classroom. An Armenian of French birth, Canadian code specified he sit on the left side of the room. The right side reserved for English and Canadian born students, the left, everyone else, Greeks, Jews, French, Poles, etc. He specifies the Canadian urgency to send troops to aid the Allies. Thinking of Canada today, the following will sound absurd: If you sat on the "right side" you were exempt from the draft, the "left side" however was required to mark a navy/army preference and attend boot-camp immediately.
Joe opted instead for an apprenticeship in metal dye making, a vital war effort, thus granting an exemption from war duties. Within five years he was a master dye maker and General motors became his home.
Back to the two inciting incidents. A young lawyer wrote a revolutionary book "Unsafe at Any Speed" highlighting corporate negligence within the industry and in particular, the GM Corvair. Joe explains messing with the Motown 3 is signing your own death warrant. "They dropped their fist on Preston Tucker's - Tucker Torpedo in the 50's. You think they saw a threat in this wiz kid Nader?" Though there are alternate versions of GM's attempted muckraking Nader, Joe's favorite insists call-girls were sent to seduce him in the cookie section of a grocery store. Joe insists Nader set a precedent with Unsafe. Not only were they unable to dig-up dirt, but Ralph sued - and won! Settling for an astounding $420,000 in 1965. GM was incidentally saddled with public apologies and a congressional inquiry.
Now, I said something about Michael Moore didn't I? Joe had his first encounter with Michael Moore in 1976. He insists most people don't know it but Michael Moore was a plant worker himself in his early years. Joe explains Nader's book didn't help GM sales, plus their settlement funded a man dedicated to regulating their cars. Japanese and German competition, gas prices, slumping sales hit GM hard. Labor union protests grew and grew. Joe says he himself remembers spending the better part of a year in those protest lines himself, until he became management.
On a cold Michigan morning he remember pulling into the plant, finding a hoard of strikers, lined up in the snow. He pulled up close, but not too close. He explains "going through the line meant getting some serious shit thrown at your car, you were liable to get hurt." He pulled up a hundred feet or so from the line. Idled. "Should have stayed home" he pondered.
A young man approached his car from the line. He introduced himself as Michael Moore. Here I stop him, wondering how you could remember that this kid and the Micheal Moore are the same person. He insists you "don't forget a guy like Mike." Mike said: "You don't want to go through that line do you?". Joe: "Hell no, if I knew they were here I would've stayed home." He said Mike explained the strikers demands, which sounded reasonable.
Perhaps Mike would find GM had other ideas in the near future. Maybe these Americans were more trouble then they were worth. Always complaining. They probably figured the Mexicans wouldn't complain, hell, they'd kiss our feet. Thinking like this that got us here.
Invariably Moore and Nader both began with GM. Moore's 'Roger and Me' touched me deeply as a child. The rabbits skinned for food, the evictions, the corporate negligence. I didn't get it for years, but it stuck with me. Are workers just rabbits you sell or skin? Hope to sell, but settle to skin?
So we're back... 2004. Joe's 80. Nader's 70. Mike's 50. Joe's retired and says GM has tried each year to roll back GM retiree benefits. Nader's slammed in the press unrelentingly, called an egomaniac, for fighting for you, in my case before I was born. Moore is not so easily defined. He's certainly the biggest filmmaker of the year. He and Nader joined forces so elegantly in 2000 and he made a great campaign commercial for Ralph... The ad was a spoof of the Mastercard's 'Priceless' ... shown 11 times on TV - and resulted in litigation between Nader and Mastercard. Nader won in court. He always wins. Perhaps it's the Goliath vs. Nader instead of vice versa. I think of him as the big little guy.
Where is Michael Moore? One of the great filmmakers. But what will be his legacy? Tearing down Bush? Maybe the sequel, Fahrenheit 9-12 will attack Kerry's administration (or Bush's 2nd term) equally vigorously? Perhaps introduce US arms to Israel and it's influence on terror, Kerry's vision of the aparteid wall as a white picket fence, Vanunu jailed for blowing the whistle.
I suppose the supreme irony is if Moore backed Nader today, he could have got him in office. How many million people saw Fahrenheit? If the film ended with puppets Bush/Kerry, and then the magnificent --- Nader! How could people resist?
I feel like going bowling tonight.... bowling for Heinz-Kerry...
A \/ote for /\/ADER / CAMEJ0 is a \/ote for justice...
In 1940 - age 16 - Joe sat in a Canadian classroom. An Armenian of French birth, Canadian code specified he sit on the left side of the room. The right side reserved for English and Canadian born students, the left, everyone else, Greeks, Jews, French, Poles, etc. He specifies the Canadian urgency to send troops to aid the Allies. Thinking of Canada today, the following will sound absurd: If you sat on the "right side" you were exempt from the draft, the "left side" however was required to mark a navy/army preference and attend boot-camp immediately.
Joe opted instead for an apprenticeship in metal dye making, a vital war effort, thus granting an exemption from war duties. Within five years he was a master dye maker and General motors became his home.
Back to the two inciting incidents. A young lawyer wrote a revolutionary book "Unsafe at Any Speed" highlighting corporate negligence within the industry and in particular, the GM Corvair. Joe explains messing with the Motown 3 is signing your own death warrant. "They dropped their fist on Preston Tucker's - Tucker Torpedo in the 50's. You think they saw a threat in this wiz kid Nader?" Though there are alternate versions of GM's attempted muckraking Nader, Joe's favorite insists call-girls were sent to seduce him in the cookie section of a grocery store. Joe insists Nader set a precedent with Unsafe. Not only were they unable to dig-up dirt, but Ralph sued - and won! Settling for an astounding $420,000 in 1965. GM was incidentally saddled with public apologies and a congressional inquiry.
Now, I said something about Michael Moore didn't I? Joe had his first encounter with Michael Moore in 1976. He insists most people don't know it but Michael Moore was a plant worker himself in his early years. Joe explains Nader's book didn't help GM sales, plus their settlement funded a man dedicated to regulating their cars. Japanese and German competition, gas prices, slumping sales hit GM hard. Labor union protests grew and grew. Joe says he himself remembers spending the better part of a year in those protest lines himself, until he became management.
On a cold Michigan morning he remember pulling into the plant, finding a hoard of strikers, lined up in the snow. He pulled up close, but not too close. He explains "going through the line meant getting some serious shit thrown at your car, you were liable to get hurt." He pulled up a hundred feet or so from the line. Idled. "Should have stayed home" he pondered.
A young man approached his car from the line. He introduced himself as Michael Moore. Here I stop him, wondering how you could remember that this kid and the Micheal Moore are the same person. He insists you "don't forget a guy like Mike." Mike said: "You don't want to go through that line do you?". Joe: "Hell no, if I knew they were here I would've stayed home." He said Mike explained the strikers demands, which sounded reasonable.
Perhaps Mike would find GM had other ideas in the near future. Maybe these Americans were more trouble then they were worth. Always complaining. They probably figured the Mexicans wouldn't complain, hell, they'd kiss our feet. Thinking like this that got us here.
Invariably Moore and Nader both began with GM. Moore's 'Roger and Me' touched me deeply as a child. The rabbits skinned for food, the evictions, the corporate negligence. I didn't get it for years, but it stuck with me. Are workers just rabbits you sell or skin? Hope to sell, but settle to skin?
So we're back... 2004. Joe's 80. Nader's 70. Mike's 50. Joe's retired and says GM has tried each year to roll back GM retiree benefits. Nader's slammed in the press unrelentingly, called an egomaniac, for fighting for you, in my case before I was born. Moore is not so easily defined. He's certainly the biggest filmmaker of the year. He and Nader joined forces so elegantly in 2000 and he made a great campaign commercial for Ralph... The ad was a spoof of the Mastercard's 'Priceless' ... shown 11 times on TV - and resulted in litigation between Nader and Mastercard. Nader won in court. He always wins. Perhaps it's the Goliath vs. Nader instead of vice versa. I think of him as the big little guy.
Where is Michael Moore? One of the great filmmakers. But what will be his legacy? Tearing down Bush? Maybe the sequel, Fahrenheit 9-12 will attack Kerry's administration (or Bush's 2nd term) equally vigorously? Perhaps introduce US arms to Israel and it's influence on terror, Kerry's vision of the aparteid wall as a white picket fence, Vanunu jailed for blowing the whistle.
I suppose the supreme irony is if Moore backed Nader today, he could have got him in office. How many million people saw Fahrenheit? If the film ended with puppets Bush/Kerry, and then the magnificent --- Nader! How could people resist?
I feel like going bowling tonight.... bowling for Heinz-Kerry...
A \/ote for /\/ADER / CAMEJ0 is a \/ote for justice...
posted by theoneandonly at 11:44 AM
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