Winfrey, McCarthy, & Moore

I like Michael Moore. I like Oprah. And newly, today, I like Cormac McCarthy.

Here's a funny thing: Oprah is kinda one of my guilty pleasures. But I'm not even sure how guilty I feel about liking her. I always have tongue planted firmly in cheek when I use the term guilty pleasure, anyway, but Oprah really is something. And today I am actually watching her show. Her theme is the one book you should read and the one film you should see this summer. The film? Michael Moore's latest, Sicko. Of course, I have been jonesing for this film and will be first in line at my local theater on June 29th. But I love that Oprah loved it, that Oprah wants to get the nation talking about this issue (because when Oprah says it's important, it suddenly hits part of the national consciousness somehow...) And that Oprah had an epiphany about the fact that "socialized" does not equal bad. As she pointed out, after the film made her reconsider, we already have socialized things here, e.g. the fire department. The police department. And as Michael pointed out, nobody expects the fire department to make a profit, because that's a life and death situation. It's not set up that way. And the same should go for health care. Instead, insurance companies profit by providing as little care as possible: it's how the system is set up. And let's not forget to mention how my heart fluttered watching a clip of the scenes in Cuba. I, for one, already have quite a lot to say about all this. I'm all for opening up a national dialogue.

And then to top it off, the second half of the show is an interview with reclusive literary genius Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road, which just won the Pulitzer prize. I relate to him so much. He has NEVER done a television interview - but our girl Oprah got him to agree to an interview with her. I love it. I also really want to read this book. I will, eventually, of course, because it won the Pulitzer. But I think I'm moving it up in my what-to-read queue.

Powerful people out there in the world doing powerful things!