Monday, November 1, 2010
The New Colossus
In John Washington’s essay titled “The New Colossus: Exploring the Idea of Border,” he talks mainly about the US-Mexican border and the real troubles of the migrant workers that try to come across illegally into America for a better life and to find work. Washington can be seen as a very understanding person because he helped the illegal immigrants when it came to medical help, food supply, or even just listening to their stories. He was hearing their point of view, which gave him a completely different perspective about the US-Mexican border than most ordinary people already have about them. It can be determined from my point of view as the reader that Washington was looking and doing this for as a very informational journey while documenting his experience. He would help all of the migrants but at the same time he would watch them as border patrol came along and see them all scatter and hide for their lives while he would watch, as he said, almost like a game. Obviously it’s more than a game, and from his essay, John Washington came out of this whole experience very sympathetic for them. A value that is brought up in his paper is the value of freedom in our lives. As an American my whole life, I have been living under a free democracy, but for the migrant farmers, it’s our government who is trying to prevent them from living the same life style as that of Americans. It is a very sad situation that most of them are put in because all they are trying to do is provide money and food in low quantities for their families and maybe even themselves, but our government wont let it happen for reasons that are very understandable.
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I agree with you that it is very sad what the migrants are going through. And like you said, being an american our whole lives, we only know what we see, and we learn by reading things like this essay, and hearing things on the news. It is crazy to think that what we read for our homework, and what we watch on movies all around the world, is the reality for all of those mexicans that try to cross the border. But you say the reasons for not allowing migrants into our country are understandable, is it understandable the way they treat the migrants? I think that that, above all outshines the so called '"reasons" why they are not allowed here. Perhaps the government should look at every aspect of the situation and pay attention to it all (like aid when they get deported back to mexico) other than just spending millions of dollars on the most expensive fence out there. Putting money into getting more equipment for aid would be more understandable in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post, Alex. Try to think about both sides of the issue and the values that the other side of the issue may have. How do they clash? Yet, how are they similar? Is there any common ground?
ReplyDeleteRaquel's comment about knowing what you 'see' is also very interesting. How does visual media (think movies like "Life is Beautiful") or experiential visual input (experiences) change our perspectives on issues?