Last night I accompanied my wife to the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego. One of her professors gave his students the chance to earn some extra credit by going to see the documentary "Crossing Arizona". It was a documentary of the issues surrounding the Mexico-US border in Arizona. What people have to go through to get here and the thoughts of those that are influenced by this.
In the film, we get to hear the opinions of many people, from the immigrants who are making their way north to the militant Minuteman who are trying to stop them. It is an extremely volatile subject which draws attention from all sides of the spectrum. You see kind hearted people who spend countless hours carrying gallons of water to remote locations, where hopefully those making their way across the desert can find them and avoid dying from dehydration. Some put up camps where they have water, food and medical supplies for those who are in need. Others fly over the area looking for those unlucky ones who are left behind and left to die.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have ranchers who have to deal with trash being left behind by those passing by. We hear them complain about broken fences and lost profits, waste left behind and slaughtered cattle. We have those that think every problem our society faces today is caused by the influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal. They hold rallies to pass a bill that will require everyone to show proof of legal residency for everything from school attendance to medical care. Then there are the Minuteman, a military type organization who have taken it upon themselves to stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming to the US. They claim to be doing the job that the Border Patrol has failed to do, creating a human chain of "observers" who are there to stop the "illegals".
As you can see from the picture above, they apparently need automatic weapons with which to do this job. Dangerous criminals carrying illegal drugs to sell to our children and violent gang members headed to terrorize our communities might fight back. They are, after all, headed here to destroy our culture and drain our economic system. The fact that the economic stability of this country is owed to them never crosses their minds. All the hard work that is done by these "Illegals" is not mentioned. No one ever mentions how the vast majority of the produce we eat is harvested by them, how practically all of our low paying jobs are done by them because the rest of us are unwilling to work the fields or do any of the countless brutal jobs they do.
Why do they risk their life crossing through the harshest environment on the continental US? How can they put themselves through such an ordeal? Some might ask why they willingly come here just to break the law, that they are criminals and deserve what happens to them. Others will say that this is the land of opportunity, and they all deserve the right to aspire to a better future. There are so many sides to this issue, and plenty of ignorance on all sides.
What will the government do about it? Militarize the border and create another Berlin Wall? Maybe pass a bill that will provide all those immigrants a legal way to come to the US and work? Or will they continue to ignore the problem, vilifying those hard workers that risk everything for a few dollars and live in fear day to day, meanwhile profiting from them and using them as political fodder for their next campaign.
What do you think?
Technorati tags:Immigration, Minuteman, Crossing Arizona
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