If loving a person means opening your eyes to their ugliest behaviors as well as their shining moments, then loving your country must entail the same. That's why I think it's so important, especially now, to see the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.

Patriotism is about much more than flying a flag from your car or trusting a president and his policies unconditionally. It's about participation in what makes our country great--freedom of speech, assembly, and of the press; freedom to dissent; freedom to engage in open, nonviolent debate about current events. And it's about making your voice heard by voting. We are lucky as Americans to have the right to peacefully overthrow our government every four years, or to endorse the current one with our votes. The choice, theoretically, is ours. But as with all the precious rights we Americans are endowed with, that choice should be excercised carefully and responsibly, part of which means gathering as much information as one can in order to make a truly informed decision.

Michael Moore's film is slanted with his own prejudices and individual brand of smarm, sure, but he's never claimed to be unbiased, in fact, he openly admits to his political standpoint. Besides, most of the footage in the film speaks for itself. Even if you choose to dismiss Moore's voiceovers, editing, and stunts, you owe it to yourself to at least acknowledge the questions the film raises. Are there truly such deep and intertwined connections between the Saudi royal family and the Bushes? Were our intelligence and counterterrorism agencies encouraged to find nonexistent connections between 9/11 and Iraq, and ignore other more obvious ties? Why have so many young men and women been sent to their deaths and disabilities in Iraq, and what is our war doing to the innocent people who call that country home? What has happened to our constitutional rights--those types of rights we claim to want to bring to the rest of the world by any means necessary--since September 2001?

Go catch a screening and see for yourself what you think. Please, before you collect that "I Voted" sticker in November, think.

P.S. Check out my neighborhood theater pictured on Michael Moore's home page. <Oakland pride>