Maybe I’m becoming a liberal

OK not on many things and I hope not on the core important things but I was watching a movie earlier this week with my daughter (the hippie chick one!)

She got the Visitor.

An interesting movie and I guess any movie that makes you think about your positions, opinions etc. can’t be all bad. Sometimes we just have our mind-sets re-confirmed and other times it does one of those “stretching” things where our mind takes on a slightly new shape.

Maybe the Visitor did that. For those who haven’t seen it I won’t reveal any spoilers here.

One issue that didn’t end up (overtly at least) playing a big role in the campaign for POTUS was immigration.

Maybe because it has become the new 3rd rail of politics – replacing Social Security of years gone by. What is going to replace Social Security as the years go by anyway?
I used to live in a border state and from my earliest days I recall the impact of immigration.

My first brush was in the early 60s, which if memory serves me correctly, a large influx of Cuban immigrants ended up in Texas. We had one in our school. Surprisingly enough I can still recall his name – Raul Hernandez. I also remember he was big and tall and by High School ended up being a lineman on our football team.
At the same time he entered our school we were just beginning to hear the rumblings in integration – this was the south remember – and then added to this was the influx of new people of another skin color.

I wish I remembered how I felt or treated him but I really don’t but I digress again.
Every time I return home to Dallas I am reminded of how immigration is changing our country and how I don’t really know or understand how I feel about it.

The Visitor didn’t resolve all my issues; it just got me to thinking about it again. And I guess I need something new to think about.

The basic story revolves around a couple of young Muslim immigrants and what happens to them. I can’t imagine the conditions under which people would risk their lives or livelihoods to come here. I also can’t imagine what happens when they confront the faceless bureaucracy of our government. Before anyone over-reacts, I’m not about releasing potential or possible terrorists from Gitmo or similar facilities but I also wonder how many accidentals; people who managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and with the added burden of the wrong skin color or religion and ended up in something akin to the vast warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark; a place where people we don’t know how to handle go to wither and die.

I can’t say much more without spoiling what is a tender, sad, thoughtful movie. It is rated PG-13 although I have no idea why. My daughter caught a couple of F-bombs early but honestly; if I didn’t hear them (OK I don’t hear anything anymore!) … Beyond this possible exception for language, it should not offend anybody.