I really do not think I can thank Michael Moore enough for having the courage to make a statement that relays how so many Americans feel, and to do so at the Academy Awards.

In case you missed the show, (or boycotted it like I did), Michael won the acclaimed Oscar for his documentary "Bowling for Columbine" a staunch but satirical look at the violence issue in America.

When he went onstage to accept the little gold statue, he made the following statement:

"We live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man who's sending us to war for fictitious reasons, whether it's the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts. We are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush. Shame on you! And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much."

The crowd stood on their feet and applauded Moore followed with a smattering of boos.

In a Q & A session afterwards, a reporter asked Moore if he had received the reaction he hoped for in the biggest upstaging of the Oscars since 1978 (when Vanessa Redgrave made the declaration that she would not be intimidated by "a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature to Jews all over the world) and why did he do it and Moore responded "Because I am an American." After a few moments of complete silence the reporter commented, "That's it?" to which Moore replied, "Oh, I think that's a lot. You do not leave your citizenship when you enter the doors of the Kodak Theatre." When he was asked about the crowd being split on their reaction, Moore was quick to remind reporters it is their duty to speak the truth. He said they couldn't call it a split because five wild people booed. (He claimed the ones that did boo where his friends and family that he had asked to do such a thing so that people could see that Hollywood is not all left wing democrats and a monolithic society.)

Moore went on to reference President Bush as the "Squatter at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" and how the war in Iraq was to benefit Bush and his oil buddies, not to protect us from Saddam Hussein coming to kill us in the middle of the night. He asked the military to withdraw their troops from CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CBS, NBC and ABC so the truth could be reported instead of the propaganda and lies.

Most impressively, Moore said it is time to reclaim America.

I am almost sorry I refused to watch the Academy Awards. I did relent and switch the television on once I heard Moore had won for his documentary. I disagree with Moore that we needed to have the show go on because it is the American way of life. I felt, especially after the news of the day regarding the videotape on Iraqi television of our dead soldiers and the POW's, that it was not in the best taste to continue with a show that glamorized the richest of the rich while some of the poorest of the poor were losing their lives in this war. If they did not want to postpone it, the least they could have done was not televised it.