Dear Editor,
The amateurish review of Michael Moore’s film, “Sicko,” by Benjamin Norris was a thinly veiled and inept attempt to discredit the idea of universal health care by using decades-old, newly revived, red scare tactics. Socialism, Communism and unions, oh my!
Has someone been listening to Glen Beck a little too much? Did you really use the “if he doesn’t like it, then why doesn’t he leave” attack and expect us to take your film review seriously?
Even simpler than that, trying to discredit the film based on something it does not claim to be, a documentary, is pointless. The fact that assertions made in a film differ from your point of view does not make those assertions untrue whether the film is a documentary or not.
Are we really to give credence to your assertion that all the system needs is a little price regulation when you yourself admitted that a beloved family member died as a result of an insurance company’s greed, that you had to file bankruptcy over medical bills at the age of 20 and that you developed a serious illness as a result of not being insured? Do you really think the FDA prioritizes consumers over corporations?
How long will Americans bury their heads in the sand and continue to defend the interests of corporations and the wealthy to their own detriment? Will we just keep telling ourselves that we’re the best and that our ideas and systems are the best while the economy falls apart and while racial and class disparities deepen?
If anybody is interested in seeing “Sicko” for themselves, I have a copy. Better yet, I think I’ll organize a screening of “Sicko” followed by a discussion about the need for universal health care. Thanks for the motivation.
-Jared Story

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