“Yes We Can!”?
By willminusintellect on June 12, 2008 at 12:45 AM in Barack Obama, Economy, Employment, Workers
This ironic perspective from a documentary film maker is the latest in our continuing statements by our readers, originally posted at his blog, WILL MINUS INTELLECT’S WEBLOG – SusanUnPC
From what I understand, the famed Barack Obama slogan “Yes, we can!” was derived from the motto of “Si, se puede!” that Cesar Chavez created for the United Farm Workers sometime in the 1970s. Not that I’m accusing Obama’s campaign team of plagiarism or anything; they did translate into English.
A few months ago, Michael Moore’s groundbreaking 1989 documentary “Roger & Me” aired on one of the 15 HBO channels. For whatever reason I recorded it rather than watched it live, but finally got around to viewing it this past evening.
For the uninitiated, the film follows Michael Moore’s attempt to confront and interview General Motor’s CEO’s Roger Smith after the closure of a GM plant in Moore’s hometown of Flint, Michigan left 3,000 people unemployed. Hilarity ensues.
About 34 minutes into the film, I made a discovery. Moore has just been thrown out the Detroit Athletic Club where he had hoped to find Roger Smith. The film then shows interior and exterior shots of a hockey arena in Flint, Michigan with the following voiceover and dialogue:
Moore (v.o.): I wasn’t having much luck bringing Roger to Flint. The mayor, though, was having better luck with an even higher authority. He paid TV evangelist, Robert Schuller, twenty thousand dollars to come to Flint and rid the city of its unemployment plague.
Schuller (at a lectern in the arena): Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.
Moore (v.o.): Thousands filled the city’s hockey arena to hear his message of hope.
Schuller (walking around the stage): Pull your way out of poverty, but you’re not going to pull your way from poverty to prosperity until you realize that you have to be humble enough to say, “I need help!”
At this point, Moore utilizes a few still photographs taken from the event: one shows Schuller shaking hands with a black man. The other? It shows an older white woman reading a program from the event. Here’s a close-up screen grab of the program:
Oh yes, you read that right — “Flint’s attitude towards unemployment is: ‘Yes, we can!!’”
The film then goes on to show a series of shots of pollyannaish billboards that can be seen from the highway in Flint –”We’ve got a new attitude!”, “Flint is Auto This World”, “Flint Works” — along with some parting voiceover from Schuller.
Schuller (v.o.): By then what happens is you can turn your hurt into a halo! The sorrow becomes a servant. Just because you’ve got problems is no excuse to be unhappy!
Needless to say, Moore is clearly ridiculing these billboards and slogans such as “Yes, we can!!” as little more than empty rhetoric devoid of substance, opiates for the masses that project hope while government officials do nothing to actually help people. Hmmm, I’m trying to wade through the irony here of a professed Obama supporter disparaging empty political rhetoric. I’ll need a moment…
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
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