Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now to take back the United States !

"Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now"

You've Seen the Movie -- Now It's Time to ACT!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Friends,

It's the #1 question I'm constantly asked after people see my movie: "OK -- so \
NOW what can I DO?!"

You want something to do? Well, you've come to the right place! 'Cause I got 15 \
things you and I can do right now to fight back and try to fix this very broken \
system.

Here they are:

FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DO IMMEDIATELY:

1. Declare a moratorium on all home evictions. Not one more family should be \
thrown out of their home. The banks must adjust their monthly mortgage payments \
to be in line with what people's homes are now truly worth -- and what they can \
afford. Also, it must be stated by law: If you lose your job, you cannot be \
tossed out of your home.

2. Congress must join the civilized world and expand Medicare For All \
Americans. A single, nonprofit source must run a universal health care system \
that covers everyone. Medical bills are now the #1 cause of bankruptcies and \
evictions in this country. Medicare For All will end this misery. The bill to \
make this happen is called H.R. 3200. You must call AND write your members of \
Congress and demand its passage, no compromises allowed ( http://www.pnhp.org/am \
endment/ ).

3. Demand publicly-funded elections and a prohibition on elected officials \
leaving office and becoming lobbyists. Yes, those very members of Congress who \
solicit and receive millions of dollars from wealthy interests must vote to \
remove ALL money from our electoral and legislative process. Tell your members \
of Congress they must support campaign finance bill H.R.1826 ( \
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1826/show ).

4. Each of the 50 states must create a state-owned public bank like they have \
in North Dakota. Then congress MUST reinstate all the strict pre-Reagan \
regulations on all commercial banks, investment firms, insurance companies -- \
and all the other industries that have been savaged by deregulation: Airlines, \
the food industry, pharmaceutical companies -- you name it. If a company's \
primary motive to exist is to make a profit, then it needs a set of stringent \
rules to live by -- and the first rule is "Do no harm." The second rule: The \
question must always be asked -- "Is this for the common good?" (Click here for \
some info about the state-owned Bank of North Dakota: http://www.motherjones.com \
/mojo/2009/03/how-nation%E2%80%99s-only-state-owned-bank-became-envy-wall-street \
)

5. Save this fragile planet and declare that all the energy resources above and \
beneath the ground are owned collectively by all of us. Just like they do it in \
Sarah Palin's socialist Alaska. We only have a few decades of oil left. The \
public must be the owners and landlords of the natural resources and energy \
that exists within our borders or we will descend further into corporate \
anarchy. And when it comes to burning fossil fuels to transport ourselves, we \
must cease using the internal combustion engine and instruct our \
auto/transportation companies to rehire our skilled workforce and build mass \
transit (clean buses, light rail, subways, bullet trains, etc.) and new cars \
that don't contribute to climate change. (For more on this, here's a proposal I \
wrote in December: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/saving-the-big \
-3-for-you-and-me-a-message-from-michael-moore ) Demand that General Motors' de \
facto chairman, Barack Obama, issue a JFK man-on-the-moon-style challenge to tur \
n our country into a nation of trains and buses and subways. For Pete's sake, pe \
ople, we were the ones who invented (or perfected) these damn things in the firs \
t place!!

FIVE THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT LISTEN TO US:

1. Each of us must get into the daily habit of taking 5 minutes to make four \
brief calls: One to the President (202-456-1414 - http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONT \
ACT/ ), one to your Congressperson (202-224-3121 - https://writerep.house.gov/wr \
iterep/welcome.shtml ) and one to each of your two Senators (202-224-3121 - http \
://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm ). To find out wh \
o represents you, click here: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ . Take just one \
minute on each of these calls to let them know how you expect them to vote on a \
particular issue. Let them know you will have no hesitation voting for a primar \
y opponent -- or even a candidate from another party -- if they don't do our bid \
ding. Trust me, they will listen. If you have another five minutes, click here t \
o send them each an email ( http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ ). And if you rea \
lly want to drop an anvil on them, send them a snail mail letter ( http://www.vi \
si.com/juan/congress/ )!

2. Take over your local Democratic Party. Remember how much fun you had with \
all those friends and neighbors working together to get Barack Obama elected? \
YOU DID THE IMPOSSIBLE. It's time to re-up! Get everyone back together and go \
to the monthly meeting of your town or county Democratic Party -- and become \
the majority that runs it! There will not be many in attendance and they will \
either be happy or in shock that you and the Obama Revolution have entered the \
room looking like you mean business. President Obama's agenda will never happen \
without mass grass roots action -- and he won't feel encouraged to do the right \
thing if no one has his back, whether it's to stand with him, or push him in \
the right direction. When you all become the local Democratic Party, send me a \
photo ( photos@michaelmoore.com ) of the group and I'll post it on my website.

3. Recruit someone to run for office who can win in your local elections next \
year -- or, better yet, consider running for office yourself! You don't have to \
settle for the incumbent who always expects to win. You can be our next \
representative! Don't believe it can happen? Check out these examples of \
regular citizens who got elected: State Senator Deb Simpson ( \
http://www.rbf.org/annualreviews/annualreviews_show.htm?root_doc_id=907315&d \
isplay_doc_id=940605&fullnav=2 ), California State Assemblyman Isadore Hall \
( http://photos.essence.com/galleries/icdrm2008images4isadorehall ), Tempe, Ariz \
ona City Councilman Corey Woods ( http://www.tempe.gov/elected/woods.htm ), Wisc \
onsin State Assemblyman Chris Danou ( http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=67 \
068 ), and Washington State Representative Larry Seaquist ( http://housedemocrat \
s.wa.gov/members/Seaquist/ ). The list goes on and on -- and you should be on i \
t!

4. Show up. Picket the local branch of a big bank that took the bailout money ( \
http://projects.nytimes.com/creditcrisis/recipients/table ). Hold vigils and \
marches. Consider civil disobedience. Those town hall meetings are open to you, \
too (and there's more of us than there are of them!). Make some noise, have \
some fun, get on the local news. Place "Capitalism Did This" signs on empty \
foreclosed homes, closed down businesses, crumbling schools and infrastructure. \
(You can download them from my website - http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must- \
read/spread-the-word-capitalism-did-this )

5. Start your own media. You. Just you (or you and a couple friends). The \
mainstream media is owned by corporate America and, with few exceptions, it \
will never tell the whole truth -- so you have to do it! Start a blog ( \
https://www.blogger.com/start )! Start a website of real local news (here's an \
example: http://michiganmessenger.com/ ). Tweet your friends ( \
https://twitter.com/ ) and use Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/ ) to let \
them know what they need to do politically. The daily papers are dying. If you \
don't fill that void, who will?

FIVE THINGS WE SHOULD DO TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND OUR LOVED ONES UNTIL WE GET \
THROUGH THIS MESS:

1. Take your money out of your bank if it took bailout money ( \
http://projects.nytimes.com/creditcrisis/recipients/table ) and place it in a \
locally-owned bank or, preferably, a credit union ( http://www.creditunion.coop/ \
cu_locator/quickfind.php ).

2. Get rid of all your credit cards ( http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/04/ \
09/michael-moore-endorses-chase-boycott/ ) but one -- the kind where you have to \
pay up at the end of the month or you lose your card.

3. Do not invest in the stock market. If you have any extra cash, put it away \
in a savings account or, if you can, pay down on your mortgage so you can own \
your home as soon as possible. You can also buy very safe government savings \
bonds or T-bills. Or just buy your mother some flowers.

4. Unionize your workplace so that you and your coworkers have a say in how \
your business is run. Here's how to do it: http://www.ueunion.org/org_steps.html \
(more info here: http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/how/howto.cfm ). Nothing is m \
ore American than democracy, and democracy shouldn't be checked at the door when \
you enter your workplace. Another way to Americanize your workplace is to turn \
your business into a worker-owned cooperative ( http://www.ncba.coop/abcoop_howt \
o.cfm ). You are not a wage slave. You are a free person, and you giving up eigh \
t hours of your life every day to someone else is to be properly compensated and \
respected.

5. Take care of yourself and your family. Sorry to go all Oprah on you, but \
she's right: Find a place of peace in your life and make the choice to be \
around people who are not full of negativity and cynicism. Look for those who \
nurture and love. Turn off the TV and the Blackberry and go for a 30-minute \
walk every day. Eat fruits and vegetables and cut down on anything that has \
sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white flour or too much sodium (salt) in it \
(and, as Michael Pollan says, "Eat (real) food, not too much, mostly plants"). \
Get seven hours of sleep each night and take the time to read a book a month. I \
know this sounds like I've turned into your grandma, but, dammit, take a good \
hard look at Granny -- she's fit, she's rested and she knows the names of both \
of her U.S. Senators without having to Google them. We might do well to listen \
to her. If we don't put our own "oxygen mask" on first (as they say on the \
airplane), we will be of no use to the rest of the nation in enacting any of \
this action plan!

I'm sure there are many other ideas you can come up with on how we can build \
this movement. Get creative. Think outside the politics-as-usual box. BE \
SUBVERSIVE! Think of that local action no one else has tried. Behave as if your \
life depended on it. Be bold! Try doing something with reckless abandon. It may \
just liberate you and your community and your nation.

And when you act, send me your stories, your photos and your video ( \
photos@michaelmoore.com ) -- and be sure to post your ideas in the comments \
beneath this letter on my site ( http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/ \
michael-moores-action-plan-15-things-every-american-can-do-right-now ) so they c \
an be shared with millions.

C'mon people -- we can do this! I expect nothing less of all of you, my true \
and trusted fellow travelers!

Yours,
Michael Moore