Actually, a better title for this article would have been: “Michael Moore has always been right, and he will be coming very soon to a town near you”. However, the reason of why I chose the present one, is because I was thinking about and referring to the memorable speech that Moore gave at this year’s Academy Awards.

As many might recall, Michael Moore won the Oscar for best documentary. According to him, he had no idea of what he was going to say during his acceptance speech, and, before reaching the podium to accept his award, he invited all his fellow documentary nominees to join him, in order that they could share the spotlight together. During his speech, he said, “We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have a fictitious election result that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons.”

During and after his speech, there were some members of the audience that booed Moore, while others supported him. Unfortunately, watching the show on TV it appeared that the booing was louder. For all of us that were cheering for Moore to win the prize, it was a sad moment. It seemed that the forces of evil took over the Kodak Theatre that night.

But Michael Moore was right that night, as he is right today. “Fictitious” was the right word to use. It has been well-documented by the foreign press – particularly the English --, that the election in Florida was stolen. Of course, our corporate media didn’t see it that way, and no questions were asked. Hence, the fictitious times, fictitious elections, and fictitious president. And then we have the fictitious war. At this time, no weapons of mass destruction have been found and no proof that Iraq was or is an immediate serious threat to the United States has been presented. But, still, Moore has been attacked by the right and conservative forces across the nation. And he, apparently, hasn’t been bothered by them at all. Instead, all this criticism has made him stronger and richer – both spiritually and economically. Good for him and good for us.

It seems that Moore, now 49, was destined to champion the rights of the disadvantaged since his younger years. He was born in Flint, Michigan, and at 18, he succeeded in leading a fight to fire the headmaster at his high school. His father and most of his relatives worked in the General Motors automobile factories around town. Years later, Moore produced and directed the classic “Roger and Me”, in which he tried to convince Roger B. Smith, General Motor’s chairman, to visit Flint, in order that he could see first hand the devastation caused by this corporation when their plants shut down, laying off 30, 000 workers. This film brought instant recognition to Moore, marking the beginning of his crusade against corporate cruelty.

Since “Roger and Me”, Moore has been an active filmmaker, directing “The Big One”, and, most recently, the Oscar-winning “Bowling for Columbine”. He has also been involved in television, creating the Emmy Award-winning show “TV Nation” and the acclaimed series “The Awful Truth”. In addition, Moore is the author of the indispensable “Downsize This: Random Threats from an Unarmed American” and the #1 New York Times bestseller “Stupid White Men…and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation”. His most recent published work is “Dude, Where is my country?”, which is also reaching high levels of popularity. All these books, films, and TV work have one thing in common: Moore’s unrelenting fight against what has been described as “fat cats, gun nuts, lying politicians”, and just about anything that he thinks is wrong with this country, including the so-called democratic party.

Not surprisingly, Moore has been the subject of attacks of all sorts from the forces that he criticizes and the people that support them. In fact, he claims that his Michigan home has been vandalized. He has been referred to as “Chomsky for Children”. Noam Chomsky, if you recall, has been one of the mayor critics of US domestic and foreign policies. But, contrary to Chomsky, who is an academic, Moore’s style is more populist and reaches millions..

Michael Moore is an important spokesperson for those who have no voice. He is an antidote to conservative spokespeople like Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Savage and others. His approach to filmmaking and book writing is clear, well-documented, humorous, and powerful. He speaks with passion and love for country, a country that he feels is being torn apart by selfish forces of our own making. In these times of the Fatherland Security Act, he is truly one courageous voice that should be heard.

MICHAEL MOORE will be at UCLA Live, Royce Hall, Sat, Nov, 22, 2003 and Sun, Nov 23, 2003.

More information at: (310) 825-2101 or www.UCLAlive.org