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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMichael Moore on Facebook: "I am going to defy your ban and will offer MY home..."
Dear Gov. Snyder:
I just wanted to let you know that, contrary to your declaration of denying Syrian refugees a home in our state of Michigan, I myself am going to defy your ban and will offer MY home in Traverse City, Michigan, to those very Syrian refugees you've decided to keep out. I will contact the State Department to let them know I am happy to provide a safe haven to any Syrian refugee couple approved by the Obama administration's vetting procedures in which I have full faith and trust.
Your action is not only disgraceful, it is, as you know, unconstitutional (only the President has the legal right to decide things like this).
What you've done is anti-American. This is not who we are supposed to be. We are, for better and for worse, a nation of descendants of three groups: slaves from Africa who were brought here in chains and then forced to provide trillions of dollars of free labor to build this country; native peoples who were mostly exterminated by white Christians through acts of mass genocide; and immigrants from EVERYWHERE around the globe. In Michigan we are fortunate to count amongst us tens of thousands of Arab and Muslim Americans.
I'm disappointed in you, Governor Snyder, for your heartless and un-Christian actions, and for joining in with at least 25 other governors (all but one a Republican) who've decided to block legal Syrian refugees from coming into their states. Fortunately I'm an American and not a Republican.
Governor, count me out of whatever you think it means to be a Michigander. I look forward to welcoming Syrians to my home and I wholeheartedly encourage other Americans to do the same.
Michael Moore
P.S. By the way, my 700-sq. ft. apartment in northern Michigan is a little small, but it's got cable, wi-fi and a new dishwasher! Also, no haters live on my floor! Stop by any time for a hot chocolate this winter.
https://www.facebook.com/mmflint/?fref=nf
handmade34
(22,755 posts)smorkingapple
(827 posts)We tend to forget our history.
Not to mention the moral obligation we have because we broke the Middle East
Quackers
(2,256 posts)You use people to further your own self interest. You seriously make me want to vomit. Oh and in regards to Syrian refugees squeezing into your "700-sq foot apartment", maybe you could've spoke up and offered your vacation home to them.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Michael Moore is one of the few people I know of who's made a movie standing up to the traitors who lied America into war.
marmar
(76,985 posts)lobodons
(1,290 posts)From the bottom of my heart, you should heed your own advice.
Quackers
(2,256 posts)There have been other posters who like MM as much as you, yet they didn't make it personal...
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)I too would pretend my original post was impersonal to better indict the personal posts of others. The convenience that comes from holding others to a higher standard than we hold ourselves to is often immeasurable...
delrem
(9,688 posts)There's no ground whatever for your complaint against someone asking you to look in the mirror.
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)you've opened your home to refugees as well? Hmmm?
Quackers
(2,256 posts)But I have worked with the Syrians, the Iraqis, and the Jordanians while in Iraq and on the borders of the other nations. I'm not upset about helping them, I think they need our help, I'm upset because I think MM is using this as an opportunity to promote himself. Just like me, the government won't allow him to house refugees and he knows it. He made an empty promise to help.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)"I'm upset because I think MM is using this as an opportunity to promote himself..."
Lacking any objective evidence to support that faith-based belief, it would appear you're predicated your anger on guess-work.
Quackers
(2,256 posts)His line of work, his current financial hardships due to his divorce, and the fact that the government would never allow him to do it, is it really a stretch to believe that his post to Facebook was done to make himself look good?
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,789 posts)I call bullshit on your statement: "The government would never allow him to do it." You can't cite any credible reference about a law or regulation that would hold water, let alone pass constitutional muster, that would prevent him from housing a Syrian refugee couple as guests.
ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)delrem
(9,688 posts)I don't particularly like Michael Moore's art, which centers too much on his persona (and this is merely my opinion about something extremely nebulous) , but I do like his message.
I think perhaps you look at his message in a jaundiced light.
The actual message, though, is one that I'd like to see reverberate and be repeated, and in general I think it's time for US Americans to have a change of heart. Perhaps taking in refugees from your own illegal and immoral wars of choice, your ever expanding "War of Terror", would be a good start. Something concrete, something to build on. As opposed to "kill the messenger"?
It would be better for him to just allow the universal shunning of Syrian refugees than present this modest offer? Really?
Quackers
(2,256 posts)This crises didn't just start. He knows there is no-way in hell that Syrian refugees are getting here without government approval. He's making an empty promise to help and using the refugees suffering to prop it up. I guess what really upset me was how he pointed out how small and humble his place is, yet he owned that huge vacation house that has since been ordered away by the court. Btw, thanks for not making this personal like some others have.
ejbr
(5,852 posts)And thanks for you honest, self reflective response. Respect.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)And even less on this crisis not just starting. Please cite governors stating that they would refuse to house Syrian refugees prior to the Paris attacks.
How would he be able to offer a house that, as you state, has been ordered away by the court?
sibelian
(7,804 posts)There are TWO problems, not one:
1. Syrina refugees are suffering and need our help
2. A tiny proportion of them are potentally Not Going To Be Our Best Mates.
It's ridiculous to pretend there's a simple way of looking at this. We need to get a grip.
ejbr
(5,852 posts)The Governor has offered just one solution to both problems. Some don't believe each problem should have the same, simplistic answer as denying all refugees without concern for the well-being of the innocent
sibelian
(7,804 posts)Last edited Sat Nov 21, 2015, 09:43 AM - Edit history (1)
But we have been told by ISIS to expect terrorists, so if all solutions to that are equally Islamophobic, when do we ever get to respond to ISIS as if they're actually terrorists who are actually telling the truth?
I think Michael's being very nice. I don't think he's being tremendously sensible.
What we need is a way of seperating radicals from Syrians.
What would that be?
Telling everybody all Muslims are "the same" isn't it, from either side.
ejbr
(5,852 posts)However he did qualify his guests as fully vetted by Obama so I'm not sure how to answer
sibelian
(7,804 posts)I have to say that there is another strand to this whole story which is very diffcult to get round, it's possible that ISIS are making these claims just to play games with the Western media, which seems to be a substantial part of the modus operandi. So me or you taking them at face value is problematic in itself. We HAVE had terrorist attacks, and we really can't expect ourselves not to try to protect our own people as well as those from the ME who are desperately trying to escape the effect of that organisation.
I was very heartened by recent threads on reddit from Muslims saying how awful they took the attacks. Very honest, very open, very human, very real. I think we need a lot more of that. I know it's very troubling for me to demand things from Muslims, but at the same time, it really does make a big difference, I feel.
I've made this point on Discussionist severaltimes, the people who are being hurt most by all this are Muslims, and I'm not talking about the ones that end up on our shores. I keep a look-out on Youtube for ISIS behaviour and some of the things they are doing in the ME are just utterly grotesque. They are a horrible, horrible movement and they hate Mulsims deviating by a whisker from their tenets with a passion bordering on insanity. It's far more real and direct than their hate of the West.
We have a tendency to look at almost everything as nice simple dichotomies that reflect our own personal heroic narratives and the roles we want to play in them. I think it's VERY dangerous.
Don't get me wrong. Mike's OK by me, I think he's a treasure.
I just think we have to be extremely careful not to play into the hands of the potential police state manufacturers OR ISIS. In some senses it's like they're on the same side.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)... you ARE quackers!
Quackers
(2,256 posts)LostOne4Ever
(9,267 posts)[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]I will gladly defend a person like that anyday.[/font]
Quackers
(2,256 posts)He knows that he made an offer which the government won't allow him to keep. Imo, he is doing this for publicity. The refugees need help, not public figures that use their plight for self-gain.
Thank you for not making this personal like some others have.
Darb
(2,807 posts)Making money is not against the law and not against what most of the posters on DU believe. Unbridled, unearned, dishonest acquisition of wealth and being a selfish Koch-like piece of shit is another matter. You want to lose elections, keep with this "we all gotta have the same" schtick, because we don't. We need more equality of opportunity, and we need a floor to how low people can sink and no lower. And that floor needs to be at a point that a person can live without fear of not having a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs and a decent enough income to live in a decent manner. A living wage is a must. A decent retirement is vital. But along the way, if someone honestly and fairly earns more wealth than most, good for them.
Whining about what Michael Moore has is stupid, because he has done much good in the world. I hope you have done some good, because you seem pretty high and mighty.
Tread smartly.
incredibly well put....
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)Mike is the most successful documentary filmmaker of all time. You expect his house to be a dump? His box office grosses are a matter of public record, they are massive.
Quackers
(2,256 posts)This was just his vacation home. In his post, he claims that his apartment is only 700 square feet. You make a good point about his take from his movies. That is why I said what I did. I think he made an empty promise, knowing there's no way to keep it without the government allowing it, just to get publicity.
randys1
(16,286 posts)I have the same attitude about patriotism as John Lennon had, pretty much, but I know a fucking patriot when I see one.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)TIME TO PANIC
(1,894 posts)Don't be emotionally manipulated by corporate media.
No one is perfect.
elmac
(4,642 posts)He wasn't born with a silver spoon stuck up his wazoo like most successful republicans. He has always been there for the workers of America and always will be. He speaks truth through his movies, something you will never find in the network news. Michael Moore is a great American and I hope he has continued success while entertaining us with the truth.
narnian60
(3,510 posts)zalinda
(5,621 posts)not everything is his to give. Besides the Syrian couple would most likely like privacy, rather than feel like they are intruding into someone's home.
Z
generalchaos
(2 posts)They probably want company! And the sort of privacy you refer to is more American than you realize. In most other countries people are used to sharing small quarters. I'm willing to bet Mrs. Moore is the one getting the big house, and Michael Moore did say he has a small apartment. No doubt the former mrs. doesn't have to "give" anything. If he has a bedroom he can let them use it, or give them a corner of the living room like any generous home-sharer would.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)Nice sentiment, but it muddies the waters.
We have been told to expect terrorists by ISIS themselves.
We need a solution, not sloganeering or grandstanding.
I like him, but he does have a habit of going off half-cocked.
randys1
(16,286 posts)to include ISIS do you?
So you have no faith in our exhaustive screening process?
sibelian
(7,804 posts)NO I have no faith in any kind of exhaustive screening process because nobody in Homeland Security has yet invented TELEPATHY. FFS. Some of the Islamic terrorist attacks in the West have been carried out by people WHO HAVE ALWAYS LIVED HERE.
I don't know what the refugee population is going to contain, ISIS have said that it will contain terrorists, ISIS are terrorists, they want to commit terrorist acts on the West, they hate the West, they say so, what do YOU think?
I suppose they could just be dicking with our brains... GUESS WHAT, some people outside the West are ALSO bad people.
Ridiculous question randy, you're ISIS, OK, you hate westerners, what are YOU gonna do? You're treating them like children. They're NOT.
Whacking the hornet's nest is stupid, STUPID, of course it is, this is the second part of the story where the hornets are now actually stinging us, clasping hands together and saying "oh, you poor hornets it's all our fault, your bruised little wings are so broken and torn, STING ME STING ME" is WAAAAY STUPIDER, that's abandoning responsibility for yourself TWICE.
The Parisian victims DID NOT deserve to die. How may more innocent people have to get slaughtered before ISIS are actually BAD? The Koran itself forbids this behaviour!!!!!
I think the solution is for Muslims to disown ISIS again and again. And I can't demand it from them. Of course not. It has to come from them publically and demonstrably because it's what they actually think, if it's coerced from them it will be MEANINGLESS.
It's ORDINARY MUSLIMS that will save us from Islamic terrorism by showing the terrorists that their way is WRONG. It's the IDEA that has to be defeated. Our deliverance from the War on Terror will come from ordinary Mulsims, that is my firm belief. It starts when THEY start it, and they have, already! They are wiser than us.
All this waving of flags and huffing and puffing and looking tough is pointless we don't really have that much control over them.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)If you can't be bothered to respond sensibly?
You're seriously telling me that you buy this self absorbed nonsense that the West actually CONTROLS EVERYTHING, because that's what the "we're responsible for the terrorists" actually rests on. It's actually just Western hubris as much as anything else. Of course we've contributed to the pitiful state to the ME, it's dreadful, but it's nonsense to suppose that there are singular monolithic factors building the process.
Certain Irish people have been terrorists when their country was oppressed, everybody was horrible to the Irish on the UK mainland when the Troubles were in full swing. Did they deserve that? NO. Was the terrorism still terrorism and were the terrorists still assholes? YES.
randys1
(16,286 posts)EXHAUSTIVE screening process will weed them out.
You see I am a former christian, so therefore to help 100,000 people I believe it is worth taking the risk that one of them might be a bad apple.
By former I mean that I do know what a Christian is supposed to do, I know what Muslims would do if it was us in need.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)YOU DON'T.
Weed out NOTHING. It ALREADY doesn't do anything. HOW does it weed them out?
"Excuse me sir, are you a terrorist?"
"No"
You can't weed out people's BEHAVIOUR.
Have you no understanding of what I'm saying to you, I'm not saying we shouldn't try to control it, I'm saying we CAN'T. The idea that we can is WRONG.
The only people who can stop terrorism are the terrorists.
You tap phones - they just don't use phones. You monitor the Internet, fine, they don't use it. You make associative webs of influence and look for patterns, they just distribute themselves away from the network and work in isolation. The only solution WE could use is a blanket ban on immigration from the ME. And it would have to apply to ALL Muslim immigrants, not just refugees! It would be legislatively and bureacratically impossible apart from anything else. Attacks are going to to happen ANYWAY, the only reason it hasn't happened again in the States is because the terrorists don't gain anything in that scenario. They already GETTING bombed by the States, that's what they WANT. There's no need for another attack on US soil, the US is already playing the game. That's IT.
We're richer than them, we're safer than them, we're more stable than the region they come from, we can take responsibility for their bodies, we can take responsibility for their safety, we can take responsibility for their continued existence, we CAN'T take responsibility for their NUTTERS.
OF COURSE some of them are going to be terrorists.
Waiting For Everyman
(9,385 posts)I don't have your patience for explaining the obvious, but clearly it needs doing. I suppose I'd be more motivated, if I believed there was an open mind on the receiving end.
But then an open mind would probably perceive an evident fact without help. Dunno. But well done all the same.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)that are easy to solve. ONE bad guy ONE good guy.
That's what happens when all you're interested in is internet memes...
840high
(17,196 posts)sibelian
(7,804 posts)He DOES do a lot of grandstanding and doesn't always make things as clear as he could.
840high
(17,196 posts)sibelian
(7,804 posts)I agree that he does have that big wide-eyed "OH MY GOODNESS, EVERYTHING'S TERRIBLE" innocence that seems to come with the territory in rich liberals. It puts a lot of ordinary people off. Again and again it becomes all about THEM. But he has done some really good stuff.
niyad
(112,435 posts)truebrit71
(20,805 posts)passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)Hell, I'd take a family in, and I only have about 700 sq feet of usable space, but I also have a dog that would eat them...so I can't.
Still, I'm glad you have decided where Michael will house them...since you seem to know so much.
Quackers
(2,256 posts)It's included in the original post at the top.
"P.S. By the way, my 700-sq. ft. apartment in northern Michigan is a little small, but it's got cable, wi-fi and a new dishwasher! Also, no haters live on my floor! Stop by any time for a hot chocolate this winter."
At least you didn't tell me to eat shit and die like the poster below.
Response to Quackers (Reply #3)
Post removed
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,789 posts)fasttense
(17,301 posts)So now tell us what else you hate cause you got enough hate there for a mass population.
ananda
(28,783 posts)Thanks for posting this. It needs to get around.
mountain grammy
(26,571 posts)once, twice, a hundred times... bravo for you Michael Moore!
LostOne4Ever
(9,267 posts)FairWinds
(1,717 posts)since the Neo-Cons and Righties launched the violence that created
this massive flood of refugees . .
They are the onces who should take Syrian & Iraqi families into their homes.
We need to start stressing that bat-shit crazy US wars are in large measure
the cause of the refugee crisis.
frazzled
(18,402 posts)The most they can do is refuse to fund programs that provide assistance, financial, medical, etc. (and that only if they, and not the legislature, have control over such disbursements).
Here in Illinois, refugee resettlement organizations (charities, through churches, etc.) are planning to continue assisting in refugee placement and assistance as usual, unless for some unlikely reason the Supreme Court stops them.
I might add: these people probably do not need to stay in Michael Moore's house, nice as the offer is. Or at least on any kind of long-term basis. They are given apartments or homes, in addition to language training, food, etc. so that they begin their lives and continue their family business with dignity.
Powers Hapgood
(57 posts)Thank you Michael . . . a lot of Hoosiers would like to follow your lead . . . if we had more money to be generous with.
LittleGirl
(8,261 posts)I don't live there anymore but born and raised there. Thanks for your point of view. Cheers.
Powers Hapgood
(57 posts). . . and one born in the hometown of Eugene Victor Debs, Terre Haute. What part do you hail from?
LittleGirl
(8,261 posts)waaay up north in lake effect snow area but lived in Indy for a few years recently. I also lived in Ft. Wayne for a year or so a long long time ago (1982). I was 'home' this past summer to visit Mom (83 now) and my brother and his daughter. It smelled like home it was so humid when I was there. Got up to the Lake a couple of times for some beach time and had more mosquito bites then I can remember in a long time too.
I was able to avoid the hard core hillbillies for the most part and saw some old classmates too. I love visiting in the summer but you couldn't catch me there in the winter to save my life. brrrr!
welcome to DU.
Powers Hapgood
(57 posts)My wife's family is from the Michigan Upper Peninsula on Lake Superior -- if you want to talk about cold and snow . .
LittleGirl
(8,261 posts)sibelian
(7,804 posts)Your doc on healthcare is brilliant. BRILLIANT.
This ISN'T the early 2000s any more. ISIS is not Saddam's Iraq...
obnoxiousdrunk
(2,906 posts)sibelian
(7,804 posts)As I have aroused your curiosity?
obnoxiousdrunk
(2,906 posts)Nothing to know from you.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)Have fun.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)You know we did have al Qaeda in the early 2000s, right?
sibelian
(7,804 posts)....aren't any better, either.
What we have is EVERY side thrashing about randomly trying to control SOMETHING and it's mosty each other rather than the actual problem.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)bigwillq
(72,790 posts)Already living in the USA. It's the right thing to do.
llmart
(15,501 posts)Why rip on Michael Moore when it's the jackass governor that should be getting our disdain? I've said it before on here and I'll say it again. Snyder is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He put on a tremendous act in his campaign of "I'm just a geeky nerd." People fell for it, even Democrats. Then as soon as he was elected he went to work pushing the right wing agenda of making Michigan a right to work state and towing the party line.
He lived in a mansion in the wealthiest section of Ann Arbor. He is a 1%'er.
Michael Moore may have his faults, but he has always fought for the working man/woman. I applaud him for pointing out Snyder's anti-Americanism - and that's exactly what it is.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)No, it is NOT a good idea to just invite a whole bunch of strangers into your home to make great big huffy puffy points whether they are terrorists or not.
It makes the whole discussion about AMERICAN LIBERALS instead of SYRIAN REFUGEES. It's self-absorbed.
Response to Hissyspit (Original post)
Post removed
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Michael Moore is the best. Snyder is the worst.
MichMan
(11,790 posts)With all the news about the availability of fake and forged documents, I don't understand how you can thoroughly vett people anyway.
JEB
(4,748 posts)than the quivering unfounded fear that seems to dominate our country's policy. What a bunch of chicken shits.