Me or We?

Michael Moore’s stunning new documentary “SiCKO” premiers in theaters across the nation today. Already lauded at the Cannes film festival, Michael Moore’s new work details the ills of Americas failing health care system by drawing sharp contrasts between our system and that of our global neighbors.

Luckily, our own Savoy Theater here in Montpelier was one of the 400 theaters across the nation to receive the film in its first week. To celebrate the release of the film and to highlight the ongoing issues with Vermont’s health system Vermont Health Care for All, Vermont Workers Center, and VPIRG got together to buy up to 1000 tickets for uninsured Vermonters. The program was officially announced at a press conference before a special showing of the movie this morning where it was also announced that we had already been able to acquire more than 600 of those tickets away.

Quick side note: Props to Stefanie Sidrotsova, our new health care advocate, for an excellent first press conference.

I could go on and on about how the movie shines a light on what’s wrong with our health care system or the thousands of personal tragedies that happen every day because of these failures. But the film brings up a deeper truth:

Is this a society of Me or We?

In other words are we a society that purely cares about our own personal affairs to the detriment of our neighbors or are we a society that can pull together and care for the least of us the same way we do for those who have the most?

It could be said that the last time America was truly a “We” country was in the 1930’s and ‘40’s when we clawed our way out of the depression and then went on to win the most titanic struggle between good and evil this world has ever seen. Then, by the 1980’s our sense of “We” was buried under the mantra “greed is good.”

Or, one could say that America hasn’t lost all of its community mindedness. The brave souls from around the country who flocked to lower Manhattan one cloudless day in September are just one reminder that we still have it in us to do true good for the community. If only we could all come together for some higher purpose, like providing health care to all Americans, and not just in times of great tragedy.