on a trip that found me passing through flint, michigan i noticed in the local rag that michael moore's latest creation, bowling for columbine , was playing at local theatres to dismal reviews. seeing the headlines took me back to my adolescent days when roger & me was opening in middle of flint's of decades long nadir . at the time it was a seminal moment and moore was a hero of sorts.

it's really impossible to describe the effect that roger & me had on me at the time, what with my father being in "management" and countless friends and aquantances being on one side of the fence or another. i mean, flint was ground zero for the 1937 sitdown strike and played an important part in the development of the american labour movement . these are powerful things to comtemplate when you're young and full of vim and vigor. so, michael held a special place in my heart over the years, rightly or wrongly. and so, it was with a sense of "when worlds collide" that i read joshua's charge that moore loses his heart :

"Now, the point of my piece here isn't to discredit Moore's flawed facts and arguments, but rather to point out what I think is a surprisingly heartless and disrespectful tack for him to take. No doubt Moore comes from an area that has its share of violence and gun-nuts. But this movie is a 180-degree reversal from the "old" Michael Moore who used to stand up for those hard-working men who enjoyed their hunting and supported the NRA. He comes across as snarky and vindictive, and leaves no room for his former base to agree with him without accepting his lopsided caricature of them. Since he started hanging out with the Hollywood and D.C. celebrity scene in the past five years, its been clear that Moore has lost touch with the common man. But the fact that he can sell out his base in such a snide, self-serving and imbalanced way; yet expect a good reception by opening it in Flint is making me think that he's lost touch with his senses, too (at least his sense of propriety)."