And President George Bush threw it all away...

Robert J. Elisberg:

There's a singular moment that stands out in Michael Moore's new film, SiCKO. The moment bursts your heart with joy and gnashes your teeth with fury. That's a tough trick to pull off.

The moment in question comes during the highly-publicized sequence when Moore has brought a boatload of seriously-ill 9/11 rescue volunteers to Gitmo for treatment. Unable to land, they put ashore instead at Cuba. But the specific moment isn't about any of that, isn't about health care at all.

Just before Moore and his companions are set to leave Cuba, they're told that a local fire department has heard there are 9/11 rescue heroes and would like to meet them. When the Moore group arrives at the station, there are the firefighters standing at full-salute attention. The Cubans explain they wish they could have joined the Americans to help out on 9/11, but add that all firefighters are brothers, all rescue volunteers are honored.

As the Americans movingly head down the line to shake hands with the Cuban firefighters, suddenly they all break into hugs.

It's a glorious, emotional scene, that swells the heart with the sense of decency from both sides. The Cubans nobly reaching out, and the Americans who nobly risked their lives.

When I lived in PA, I was a volunteer firefighter with the local department for a few years in high school and college. I've often thought about it for the past five and a half years, knowing that hundreds or maybe even thousands of individual volunteers like I was during that time in my life rushed up to lower Manhattan and offered to do whatever needed to be done. Seeing these few folks in the film and hearing additional testimony from the in their appearance on Democracy Now! made me ponder the fact that I most likely would have gone up there myself if I hadn't have turned the page to this current chapter of my life here on the gulf coast, and most likely would have been in the same dire straits as Reggie and John.

But Mr. Elisberg uses the example of solidarity between emergency workers across physical and ideological barriers to springboard to a larger theme on squandered opportunities and potential global solidarity in favor of power and resource grabbing:

After 9/11, as horrific as that day was, there was an apparent thought in the air: that through tragedy, the world had come together. The entire world. Friends and enemies alike all over the globe were holding vigils for the stricken-America, knowing that in this disaster, everyone was connected. If there was to be a fight against terrorists, here was the world opening its door and its heart to America. United, the world had a chance to connect and work together to achieve whatever heights it wanted.

And President George Bush threw it all away.

He not only lost the rarest chance of uniting the entire world, but did the unimaginable: he got the world -- ready to support America -- to distrust, even in-part hate the United States to depths this country has never known.

There was our enemy, Cuba -- a nation we've been at conflict with for half a century, a nation off-limits to Americans without special permission -- standing at ready-salute to the heroic men and women who risked themselves in the 9/11 attack. Five years later, still swelling with honor towards them. Not just any nation, but Cuba. Our bitter enemy. Hugging Americans in support for 9/11. Still standing by us, five years later.

And President George Bush threw this all away.

On the Fourth of July, we turn our thoughts to the Statue of Liberty, standing tall in the harbor, welcoming immigrants from around the world to the freedom of our shores. For 232 years, we have been a beacon to all such people and such hopes, and those around the world have looked at that Statue with arm raised and flame held high to stand for all that is good, noble, glorious and important about America.

And President George Bush threw all that away.

The Democrats and even some Republicans who are finally recognizing the antics of this administration for what they are--a shameless grab at as much power, wealth and control as absolutely possible, consequences and repercussions be damned--keep invoking the moniker of Richard Nixon, as in Nixonian Stonewalling, but this goes far beyond what Tricky Dicky tried to get away with. He was content to spy on political rivals and lie to the American people about the escalation of an unpopular war. The Shrub and the Shooter (or is it the other way around?), not to be outdone, have raised the bar to almost unfathomable heights (or depths) by adding torture, kidnapping, illegal and covert wars on non belligerent nations, and the blatant disregard for established international institutions such as the U.N. and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The damage that has already been wrought and may be additionally wrought in the next 17 months is staggering and hard to comprehend. What's even harder to comprehend is how the damage can be repaired after January 20, 2009.