Moore should inspire more

Love him or hate him, Michael Moore knows how to make us talk.

Either we find ourselves laughing a long with the delightfully sarcastic commentary that Mr. Moore engages in, or we bristle at the in-your-face and combative style that he's come to be known for. His films purposefully raise questions about and bring attention to issues within our society that we're more often loathe to think about with any sort of depth.

Beginning his crusade to inform, Mr. Moore brought the American public his first film in 1989, which offered a look at what happened to his hometown of Flint, Mich. after General Motors closed its factories there and move manufacturing to Mexico, where labor was significantly cheaper.

Since then, Mr. Moore has brought us films that look at the corporatization of America ("The Big One"), gun control ("Bowling for Columbine"), the state of America after the September 11 attacks ("Fahrenheit 9/11"), healthcare ("Sicko"), and most recently the financial meltdown of the country ("Capitalism: A Love Story").

I've seen almost all of Mr. Moore's films and I can honestly say that more often than not, I've walked away from them feeling energized. Yes, the facts and figures that he presents make me mad. Sometimes I find myself frustrated with his hyperbolic tendencies. And other times I wish he wouldn't get in everyone's faces all the time.

But then I ask myself, if he doesn't do it, who will? Yes, he antagonizes the people that he wants to get answers from, but Mr. Moore makes a point to ask the questions. He makes a point to call out the individuals that he feels are taking advantage of the American people. More than anyone else, Mr. Moore embraces his civil liberties and lives up to the ideals that he presents in his films.

After the showing of "Capitalism: A Love Story" at the Humanities Symposium on Feb. 8, I once again felt myself energized by what I'd seen. Perhaps more that what was shown in the film, it was the discussion that followed that really got me excited. Yes, the film presents a pretty bleak and disheartening look at the state of our financial system, but it also gives us an opportunity to see how we, as people, as voters, as union members, can affect change.

Footage of representatives speaking on the House floor, adamantly demanding that the financial bailout not be passed, giving impassioned pleas to colleagues to give the bailout a harsher look—to take the time to consider it in committee, the way any piece of legislation should, reminded me that that is how government is supposed to work. No brokered backdoor deals, no inside jobs completed by CEOs and department heads.

I recently read something that Mr. Moore said about his film: "Democracy is not a spectator sport, it's a participatory event. If we don't participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy." We have to get involved in the conversation. We can disagree, we can argue—that's what Mr. Moore's films give us: points for discussion and places to enter the conversation.