Bowling for Columbine
#33 is my movie challenge for the year is Michael Moore’s acclaimed documentary. Yes, Moore can be annoying and manipulative. He tossed around some very fuzzy numbers. But he is also quite funny, and I appreciate how his tenacity often got results, as when he and two boys who had been shot at Columbine High School visited KMart headquarters, and got them to stop selling bullets nationwide. His point, which I don’t think he made clear enough, is that while people should have the right to have guns, they don’t really need them for protection. He blamed the American media and government for creating an environment of fear that resulted in a more gun-toting, violent society.
Ironically, I was still thinking over his point about how our fears about safety far outstrip the actual likelihood of violence in our lives when some drunk yahoo smashed our front porch window over the weekend. I was glad for our home security system.