2008 Woodie Awards
A House Divided: MC Students discuss the controversy of Fahrenheit 9/11
Nicholas Marricco
Issue date: 11/10/04 Section: Features
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Here's a news flash for you: We live in turbulent times. Our country is more divided today than it has been in many, many years. From terrorism to abortion to the environment, we seem hardly able to agree on anything at all. If any movie over the past year has succeeded in capturing the essence of our nation's divided spirit, it is Michael Moore's controversial "Fahrenheit 9/11." An anti-Bush "Mock-umentary," the film simply begs to be argued over; and on Wednesday, October 27th, Manhattan College students got together to do just that.
Inside Plato's Cave, to the left, students sat on green couches surrounding the giant television, their eyes fixed intently on the screen. On the television, a marine stood on a street corner outside a tan, sun-baked building. He turned towards the camera, and the building behind him erupted into a cloud of gray dust. The next grisly scenes showed injured soldiers being carried on stretchers, missing limbs and covered in blood. A student in a white shirt handed out a pamphlet that read "Fifty-Nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11, by David Kopel, Independence Institute". As he turned to walk away, the back of his shirt was scrawled in curving blue letters the words "Except for ending slavery, fascism, Nazism, and Communism-War has never solved anything." That site alone gave the hint that this discussion would be heated.
It didn't take long for the bullets to start flying. As the credits began to roll, the remaining 10 or so students gathered around to begin the discussion. Senior Julie Grogan-Brown, who organized the event, started off by explaining the importance of seeing all sides of an issue, especially the side that is not prominent in the media. Grogan-Brown then opened up the discussion by asking which scenes the students found most effective. Not surprisingly, many students agreed on the "Classroom Scene," in which President Bush sits in a classroom for over 10 minutes after he learns of the attacks on the World Trade Center buildings.
Inside Plato's Cave, to the left, students sat on green couches surrounding the giant television, their eyes fixed intently on the screen. On the television, a marine stood on a street corner outside a tan, sun-baked building. He turned towards the camera, and the building behind him erupted into a cloud of gray dust. The next grisly scenes showed injured soldiers being carried on stretchers, missing limbs and covered in blood. A student in a white shirt handed out a pamphlet that read "Fifty-Nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11, by David Kopel, Independence Institute". As he turned to walk away, the back of his shirt was scrawled in curving blue letters the words "Except for ending slavery, fascism, Nazism, and Communism-War has never solved anything." That site alone gave the hint that this discussion would be heated.
It didn't take long for the bullets to start flying. As the credits began to roll, the remaining 10 or so students gathered around to begin the discussion. Senior Julie Grogan-Brown, who organized the event, started off by explaining the importance of seeing all sides of an issue, especially the side that is not prominent in the media. Grogan-Brown then opened up the discussion by asking which scenes the students found most effective. Not surprisingly, many students agreed on the "Classroom Scene," in which President Bush sits in a classroom for over 10 minutes after he learns of the attacks on the World Trade Center buildings.