Michael Moore Pledges $10,000 in Matching Donations to BHCC

Michael Moore began his speech at Bunker Hill Community College on Thursday night with righteous indignation. He lashed out against what he considers unfairly low corporate tax rates, and bemoaned the hardwork schools like BHCC have to do to secure funds for low-income students while so much wealth is present in the corporate world.

Then he surprised the crowd by pledging money to Bunker Hill's Emergency Assistance Fund for students. Earlier in the evening, Thomas Saltonstall, the College's Director of Diversity and Inclusion, urged everyone to donate to the fund. Moore upped the ante. The fund chips in cash for students who find themselves forced to choose between meeting their basic needs and attending school.

"If you could please put some money in the envelope tonight, I will match it dollar-for-dollar," Moore said. "If we can raise up to $10,000 tonight, I will donate, and we can raise $20,000, or almost 10 percent of what they said they've given away since 2009. And we'll be the ones who have done it, right here."

His announcement was met with a spontaneous standing ovation from the crowd, but after they had settled back into their seats he moved on to his views on national politics, sounding off on the recession and Obama's presidency. 

"I wish [Obama] had come in like Franklin Roosevelt and said, 'My way or the highway' and take the hit for it, or whatever, but he didn't," Moore said, though he made it clear that he'd be supporting Obama's re-election. 

He also highlighted the importance of education throughout his speech, and asked the audience to join him in "not electing anyone to public office unless they make education a priority." 

Shortly after he began to read from his new book, Here Comes Trouble: Stories From My Life, and the two stories he shared dealt with his own experiences in the education system. 

After he finished reading, he opened up the floor for a Q&A session, where he addressed everything from the tone of the recent Republican debates (Jon Huntsman is his pick for a Republican candidate) to job creation ("We need to have a huge spending influx of government money and tax the corporations"), but he was most poignant when speaking about the relationship between the information citizens recieve and their subsequent actions (or lack thereof). 

"Don't you think our problem is that we feel paralyzed, that we feel helpless?" He asked. "We don't know where to go or who to turn to, or what idiot to vote for next...I think that we lack leadership...If you're waiting around for a leader or an organizer, that person isn't coming.  So you need to think about you being that leader and you being the organizer."  

Dozens of people were seen filling out donation forms on their way out of the event.