The $12,000 Question

I've been a fan of Michael Moore's work ever since Roger and Me. And TV Nation was consistently brilliant, so naturally it came to and vanished from the small screen rather quickly.

Healthcare Olympics from Michael Moore's TV Nation.

From a recent letter-to-the-editor in the local birdcage-liner:

Halfway through his documentary, after describing the injustices and inequities of an insensible and injurious American health care delivery system, Michael Moore asks in his documentary Sicko: "What kind of people are we?"

Well, in this article you can get a bit of an idea of the kind of person Moore himself tries to be. Some snips:

For several years now, Jim Kenefick has been railing against the Oscar-winning director on Moorewatch.com. Recently, Kenefick wrote about the difficulty he was having paying his wife's medical bills. Fellow conservatives guided him toward a cheaper health insurer, but Kenefick said he still had trouble making payments.

We can now confirm to Kenefick that his secret benefactor is none other than the dreaded, detestable, loathsome Michael Moore.

Kenefick admitted the $12,000 "was like manna from heaven at that time. ... My business was almost dead, my wife was very, very ill, and I was racking up a few little health problems of my own. That money made it possible for us to begin to turn our lives around."

Still, he doesn't sound especially grateful.

Having suspected Moore might be his secret patron, he contends that his bete noir made the gift just to publicize "Sicko," which takes aim at America's health-care system and, we've heard, touches upon Moore's covert generosity.

"I knew he was using me," said Kenefick. "Moore is going to try to make me into one of his little puppets."

Like Moore's new movie wasn't getting enough publicity, at least not until l'affaire Kenefick hit the headlines like a showbiz tsunami.

Kenefick's an idiot, but neither he nor his wife should be without proper healthcare.

What kind of person accepts such a gift, one that he really really needs, yet still plays the victim, as if Moore was actually going to make him into "one of his little puppets?" What kind of a person can't even manage to utter a humble "thanks?"

You already know what kind of person: a sicko.

Nurses know. We may not directly donate thousands of dollars to people like Kenefick, but we put our hearts and souls into helping such people when they get ill and end up in our care. No big deal. That's just what we do. That's the kind of people we are.