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Delivering
Mother’s Day meals to shut-ins for Meals on Wheels, that was nice.
Working with the Texas Emancipation Day Committee’s Juneteenth
celebration and magazine was uplifting. A future volunteer hook-up with
Morningside Ministries awaits. My
involvement with each of these was (or will be) sincere. Each time, the
offer was put forth, and I (and select family members) agreed to help
out. Well,
I have decided it’s high time I sponsor my OWN event. My OWN community
effort. I have decided to organize, from the ground up, my OWN event,
seek public backing, to see how it goes. My
event? Simple. Only takes 2, 2 1/2 hours of your time, will cost between
$5-$20, depending on level of participation and “ordered
necessities.” And the best part of the event -- the sharing of time
with a group of people most are not commonly associated with. And I
think I even have a name for my community “giving back” effort: “Take
A Republican to Fahrenheit” Day – TARF Day. Yes,
TARF Day will be an “outreach” of sorts, an attempt to awaken “the
sleeping giants” of the GOP, to slap them into reality. Oh,
don’t get me wrong, it involves no physical contact -- other than GOP
hand wringing, and more Democratic applause than during any George Bush
State of the Nation speech. I am
urging people to invite Republican co-workers, neighbors, friends,
family members, it doesn’t matter who they are -- we’re looking to
“shine the light” of truth and idealism into their otherwise
sheltered existences. Have
I seen “Fahrenheit 9/11” yet, the Michael Moore movie I speak of?
No, I have not. But that’s why I am extending the offer in the first
place! I
will pay the way of the first die-hard Republican who will accompany me
through the theater doors, and sit and watch the movie. The entire
movie. Start to finish. No leaving, no restroom break, no slipping out
the side door when President Bush boasts, “Bring Them On!” I
will even buy you a Coke or Pepsi and a hot dog, with your choice of
condi’s (as in ketchup and mustard, not as in Condi Rice). And
you have to be a die-hard GOP’er, too. I don’t want anybody sneaking
in, just because I am buying the ticket. I will need to see at least two
forms of ID, such as: your NRA card; a subscription form to National
Review with your name and address on it; the receipt from your Rush
Limbaugh tie; a Christmas card signed by President and Laura Bush; or
your invitation to the Texas state GOP confab. Any two of those will do
nicely. Come
on now, don’t be afraid. There have been worse segments of 150 minutes
that you’ve sat through -- like the Oklahoma-Texas A&M game last
year (77-0), or “Cat In The Hat” (for those parents whose kids
dragged them to THAT imbecilic waste of acetate). Anyway,
come on out – my treat. I
sincerely hope I have a taker, I hope my offer doesn’t go without a
single spine surfacing from among the GOP pack. God knows, there are
enough of them here in Texas. About every officeholder above assistant
part-time dogcatcher in this state is a Republican. Heck,
in the Dog Days of Summer, traffic comes to a crawl or near-stop for
three hours every afternoon, when a formerly-married-and-now “clean
and sober” radio talk-show host is on the local AM band. I
find it so ironic that Republicans are so up in arms about Moore’s
documentary. They’ve got their Rush Hour, five days a week, three
hours a day. That’s
15 angst-filled hours, 52 weeks a year, for the past decade or so …
and they’re upset about a
two-hour movie? There’s no comparison, really. It costs MONEY
to go to “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Rush is free, available to anyone with
as few as two fingers on one hand and at least a transistor radio in
their ownership. Moore
makes no bones about the intent of his movie. In his words, taken from
his Web site: “Every
single fact I state in "Fahrenheit 9/11" is the absolute and
irrefutable truth. This movie is perhaps the most thoroughly researched
and vetted documentary of our time. No fewer than a dozen people,
including three teams of lawyers and the venerable one-time
fact-checkers from The New Yorker went through this movie with a
fine-tooth comb so that we can make this guarantee to you. “Do
not let anyone say this or that isn't true. If they say that, they are
lying. Let them know that the OPINIONS
in the film are mine, and anyone certainly has a right to disagree with
them.” This
is where most people get confused, run aground ,or get sidetracked …
Moore makes no bones about his dislike for the current administration;
but he bases his belief on truth. He then uses the truth to form his own
opinion. In
two of his previous documentaries, “The Big One” and “Bowling For
Columbine,” Moore states a string of facts and then jumps headfirst
into life, using the facts to usurp authority or, as with the famous
1960s buzz phrase, “Question authority.” Example:
In “Bowling For Columbine,” Moore’s research shows that the
ammunition used in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting was purchased
at a local Kmart. Armed with this information, Moore travels to
Kmart’s national headquarters, to persuade Kmart to stop selling
bullets like those used in the Columbine attack. But
he didn’t go alone. In “Bowling,” he takes two students with him,
Columbine shooting victims -- one confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed
after taking a bullet in the spine; the other walking with bullets still
in his body. And
you know what? It worked. After speaking with Kmart officials one day,
Moore and the students return to Kmart’s headquarters the next, ready
to hold an impromptu press conference. However, a store official emerges
and tells them the chain, indeed, has agreed to remove live ammo from
its stores within 30 days. THAT
is classic Michael Moore -- state the facts, beyond a reasonable doubt
… then DO SOMETHING about it. And
THAT is what I want to witness … with a dyed-in-the-wool Republican at
my side. One
rule, though, for anyone joining me on TARF Day: I don’t chat during
movies. Once the movie starts, it’s “quiet time” until the credits
roll. I don’t pay good money to chit-chat, quarrel or gab. Once the
houselights go down, it’s me, the screen … and the message. Any
takers? Jeff
B. Flinn, managing editor of the Herald, asks potential moviegoers to
offer up credentials; offer good to GOP members only. No
free-loading Independents or Democrats on my $10-spot! (Any true
Democrat worth his/her weight in salt should have already seen the
movie, anyway!)
Jeff reports one taker so far. Flinn can be reached at: jflinn2001@yahoo.com Originally Published in the San Antonio Herald |
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