On October 14th at the Minga Restaurant, the DREAM youth group started its raising awareness series with the Michael Moore film, “Where to
Invade Next,” followed by discussion led by a member of the DREAM
team, in this case, Sarah Taylor (age 17). Sarah spoke of the DREAM goal of
setting an example of social concern for other youth, and of an idea in the
film that all it takes to tear down a wall is an idea – Moore's wall was the
Berlin Wall, whose fall he and a friend witnessed. In the movie, Moore
describes how he travelled Europe, searching for good ideas and policies to
bring back home to the United States. This was because he has been criticized
in his filmography for loudly crying about problems and ignoring their
solutions. I asked Silvie Taylor (age 22) what she thought of the film. She
said,
"In the movie, I liked that the kids
(in Finland) got a better education through less homework, less school and more
creative time. There was also an interview with the world's first female
president (Iceland, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who was elected in August of 1980),
which set the bar for more female presidents. And it was sad to see how cruel
the U.S. prison guards were to Black prisoners, especially compared to the
Norwegian prison system that focused on rehabilitation, not revenge."
The movie also showed Moore's visit to
Portugal, where drug use has been legalized. Instead of chaos, this policy,
combined with treatment and reintegrating of addicts into society, has had
great success. For more information on this non-isolationist approach to
eliminating drug abuse, see the book, "Chasing the Scream: The First and
Last Days of the War on Drugs, by Johann Hari, at http://chasingthescream.com/
Moore also interviews police officers in
Portugal, who ask him for a chance to send a message to law enforcement
officers in America about the death penalty: "Killing people in the name
of the law is an affront to human dignity," they declare.
After the movie, DREAM organizer Reza
Kazemi spoke about the advantages of watching a documentary like this together.
The magic of collective awareness shared together is different from what it
would be if we watched the same film at home. Like Moore's film, the present
emphasis of DREAM is positive. They wrote: "This year’s DREAM raising
Awareness series looks at solutions and possibilities for creating positive
change. Rather than only looking at a problem, the focus is to look at the
solutions community can offer."
The next in the series will take place on
on November 18th, in support of the Dunnville Farmers’ Market. The movie will
be Michael Pollan's documentary, “In Defense of Food,” meant to debunk the
daily media barrage of conflicting claims about nutrition. DREAM is also
sponsoring an application of the lessons of eating food, rather than factory
produced junk food, on Feb. 24th, with a “A Culinary Night that Heals”. Grade 8 students of Dunnville will cook up
gourmet food that is healing, both for our bodies and the planet.
By John Taylor
Sarah Taylor, Laurence, Caleb Noon in discussion period after the film.
Reza Kazemi
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