The documentary 9500 Liberty portrays the story of Prince William County, Virginia as they address a variety of positions on immigration. The County implements a law that requires police to stop and question those who they have “probable cause” to believe are undocumented immigrants. The town splits and fiery opinions are spread through city meetings, blogs, and message walls. A few characters stuck out to me as I watched this film with a mixture of disbelief, sadness, and hope.
One of the characters in the film who did not have a large role, but significantly impacted me was the short-haired woman at the Interfaith Community Dialogue. After the ordinance was implemented, this discussion took place to focus on how healing could occur throughout the community. This woman who strongly supported immigrants passionately exclaimed that this dividing law was a barrier for healing. She acknowledged that immigrants faced egg-throwing and other alienating actions that put them on the same level as dirt. How could an oppressed people be asked to work toward healing and reconciliation when the oppressors have no desire to treat the oppressed with respect as humans? Healing requires vulnerability and how can an immigrant make himself/herself vulnerable when a police officer is required to make subjective and perhaps prejudice-based decisions against anyone who "appeared" to be undocumented? Before healing can even be addressed, not only must the law be eradicated, but also a new attitude and effort toward acceptance need to emerge.
Another strongly opinionated character, Greg Letiecq, used his voice to support the opposing position. He greatly pushed for the new ordinance and even started an offensive blog that allowed others to share similar opinions. This blog emphasized fear and hatred toward immigrants. He also often used Christianity to justify his position. He explained that leaders are put in place by God and that as part of God’s plan, all immigrants should return to the place where they are from. Furthermore, he stated that “we want to send them back with love.” It is hard for me to understand these contradicting ideas of how to treat others. Doesn’t God ask us to love our neighbors and treat others the same way that we want to be treated? It is not difficult to pick out Biblical references to apply to whatever context is prevalent. My own values emphasize the love of Christ and in serving others, even those sometimes despised or disrespected in society.
While watching 9500 Liberty I cringed at the lack of compassion throughout the community, felt sorrowful toward the immigrants who felt violence directed at their families, and lastly found glimmers of hope in the witness of Gaudencio Fernandez and the solidarity of many community members. Eric Byler and Annabel Park have provided a great opportunity for discussion through their film and online presence.
Thanks for the link to the bvbl blog. I didn't spend too much time on it because I started feeling frustrated and angry but it was interesting to be able to see it for real after seeing it play such an important role in the documentary. I never thought about a blog as dangerous in this sort of way before, but Greg's blog caused incredible hurtfulness and pain in the community of Manassas. How could people post comments of such hatred? Some of the comments on the blog that were read aloud blew my mind. I couldn't believe someone would write something so awful and hateful toward another person. And for what? What do you win by posting comments like that?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to agree with Mandy about Greg's blog being dangerous. Holy cow. That blog is so full of anger and, if we're to take the movie/documentary as being truthful, it definitely helped add to the divide in Prince William County. It's interesting/fascinating/scary how ANYONE with access to a computer and the internet can create such a drastic difference in a community.
ReplyDeleteHowever, could you imagine a world in which such online views were censored? What would people say about the US government if they censored things on the internet?
I've run out of other things to say. Great well-worded and well thought out opinions, Becca. And I can totally relate to your cringing at the lack of compassion. Astounding.
I loved the view of the character that was actually not named. Her ideas were very true: how can you expect healing when people in the community are not treating them with alienating actions. I am so lost as to how people cannot treat other people as if they are human beings. We watched a video in my education class about racism and prejudice. I love the way they portrayed it. It was a class of younger kids ( I don't remember exactly what grade) and they were talking about racism. It took place in the 1980's - it is called "A Class Divided." The teacher was racist one day against the students with blue eyes and had the students do this as well. The next day, they were racist against the brown eyes. This idea simply showed people what it was like to be judged on something you cannot change. The students were turning against their friends and classmates. Now, this was staged in this classroom to teach students about racism and to show them why we should work against it. 9500 Liberty was almost a real life example of the racism that still exists. Sometimes I wonder what people would do if the tables were turned and if people like Greg were the ones being oppressed and judged....
ReplyDeleteI also liked the short haired lady, I wonder why they didn’t give her more time in the film as she seemed very impassioned about what was going. I think the thing I liked most about her was her passion and her understanding that it wasn’t only the illegal members of the community that were feeling betrayed and hurt, but all the legal immigrants as well. I think her line about how you can’t heal a community while one side feels betrayed was a very good summation of the effects of enacting this sort of law. Hopefully other places will see this film and take those words to heart before passing other laws like this in other places.
ReplyDeleteI liked that you attached the blog but I don't really want to read it. I know that the ignorance and hatred in there would make me mad. How can a blog influence what decisions will be made? I agree with Lavonne saying that access to the computer can be interesting/fascinating/scary to make a difference in a community. Greg did a good job on convincing people through his blog. I strongly disagree with his actions and messages but he used the internet to change people's views and it worked. It was great to see that there was an anti-blog. It was great to see people respond back to those hateful messages. I also liked the lady character. I was glad to see a non-Latino stand up for the immigrant community. If there were more of those kinds of people, then I believe there would be a different outcome.
ReplyDeleteBecca, I think the question you raised, in highlighting the lady in the church's response, is an extremely difficult one, but one that is all-too-often not asked. We so often focus on the need for reconciliation, without dealing with the very human emotions that get in the way. In an academic setting like class conversation here at Goshen, it's easy to think about what makes sense to us, in the long run. It's difficult in person for people not to think about immediate responses like anger and revenge.
ReplyDeleteRebecca, you represent the extremes in this conflict well in this post. I think after all of the hate speech at the beginning of the film it was a relief to hear someone speak out so strongly against the bigotry (the short-haired woman). You also touch on the ways in which religious views shape our responses. It is interesting to see how Christianity can be used to argue for either side. Like you, I embrace the teachings of Jesus who ministered to the needy. I don't remember any bible passages where Jesus defended the rich. Great Youtube link to the news story on Gaudencio's wall.
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