Misleading movie based on hatred

To the editor:

A recent letter to the editor suggested that Michael Moore's movie "Fahrenheit 9/11" lends legitimacy to the anti-war protests in Cape Girardeau. While there are many good reasons to question our involvement in Iraq and to disapprove of President Bush's performance, this movie is not one of them.

Moore is quick to acknowledge his hatred for the president and is obviously obsessed with his defeat. These are hardly the ingredients for a truthful and objective documentary. Much of the movie has been discredited by objective investigation, and the most significant effect of the movie is to take the bitter and polarizing war between right-wing and left-wing extremists in the media to a new low. Will the right wing now retaliate by trashing the Democratic candidate in an equally hateful and misleading fashion? Probably.

The Nazi Party used willing accomplices in the entertainment industry to produce hate-filled anti-Semitic movies that enraged the German people and led to countless horrors. It is ironic that Moore, in his zealous hatred for the president, has stooped to tactics that place him on an equal footing with history's worst right-wing demagogues. It is sad that some people believe him.

Anti-war protesters in Cape Girardeau would do better to hitch their wagon to some star other than Michael Moore. It is unlikely that his brand of hate-filled propaganda will draw large crowds to the intersection of West End Boulevard and Broadway.

WILL RICHARDSON, Jackson