McFarland USA

If you've been reading at all you know I have a bit of disdain for the whole Hollywood crowd.  I mean, they are so self-congratulatory it is nauseating.  I basically ascribe to the thoughts expressed here.  Here's the pull quote:

"Talk about a self-licking ice cream cone. This is an ice cream cone that builds its own ingredients from scratch, pieces them together, promotes the product, sells it at a premium, and then reviews the results. You don’t even get a vote. No one cares what youthought about the ice cream cone. The ice cream cone will tell you how good the ice cream cone was, thank you. External inputs are neither required nor desired."

But every once in a while a movie comes along that really moves me (and I assume others).  Such a movie is McFarland USA.  We went yesterday and I just can't stop thinking about how powerful two messages are for me.  The first of these is the power of sports.  This is the story of a coach at the end of his options with no experience in Cross-country running build a team of immigrants in Central California into a State Champion.  It embodies all that one thinks of in sports.  Teamwork, the power of determination, the fact that sports can take you to places you never imagined, discipline, the ability of sports to bring a community and a people together, and on and on and on.

The second message is the need to do something about our immigration issues in this country.  I've written about this and you can read it here.  I don't know if I'm right or wrong, but I still believe we've got to tackle this issue, sooner rather than later.  We've heard the politicians bicker over this issue for too long.  I know all the campaign slogans about the issue.  We must secure the border.   We must prevent terrorists from coming to this country.  There is a huge criminal element that we have to deal with.  We have to preserve jobs for Americans.  Etc, etc, etc.  All these issues are real, but if we're being honest, the biggest issue is how to accommodate the influx of people from South of the border who are coming here to build a better life.  While all this bickering and posturing continues, the plight of average people continues.  I don't for a minute think that Obama's solution that he is achieving by going around the Constitution is okay.  But I get his frustration.  McFarland USA, while just a Hollywood movie that minimizes and simplifies some pretty heavy issues, brings to light the plight of average people just trying to make a better life.  They generally do menial and excruciating work that most legal Americans won't do in this age of privilege.  That is just a fact.  And most are good people.  That is also a fact.

We have a lot of problems in this country.  Immigration is just another in a long list.  But more and more I see it as an issue of morality.  Of our basic humanity.  We are a nation of immigrants.  We have to find a way to accommodate a continuing influx of people around the world who still see America as a shining beacon of opportunity and freedom.  And we can't do this by building fortress America.