The past week was reasonably uneventful. Wednesday for work I got to go to a screening of a documentary on Christianity and immigration. There were plenty of interesting thoughts behind it – part of it was dedicated to “exposing” myths about immigration (like the fact that at most 500,000 people officially immigrate and become US citizens a year, so the theory that they all should “get in line” and stop being lazy just doesn’t make sense for 12 million people) and part was dedicated to providing reasons Christians should care about the issue (we’re supposed to care for all of God’s children, etc.). Interestingly, the faith community has really joined forces on this issue. There were a wide variety of denominations represented at this screening, and the Southern Baptist Convention just passed a resolution calling for immigration reform making it easier for immigrants to enter the country and find homes, work, etc.
Certainly there was a lot to think about in the 40 minute film. One particular thing that caught my attention was the fact that undocumented immigrants with jobs still have their salaries taxed by social security, yet with no social security number this money is just going into a big pot somewhere. Which means they have been paying for no benefits, and the system has been growing richer – yet no one has said anything about it because it makes the system richer.
Unfortunately, the film just was not that good. They needed someone who knew how to make a film to help them out. There was no real plot, the explanations of what were going on weren’t great, and I didn’t particularly connect to the characters. There were scenes when a father of six was potentially going to be taken and deported (his wife and all of his kids are legal US citizens), and it should have been very sad and emotional. But it just wasn’t, and they hadn’t made it so I connected with the characters. I thought, well that’s really too bad for them, and moved on. And I’m a pretty easy person to connect with through a film.
Anyway, it probably won’t go the places they want it to go, because after the discussion it was clear they hadn’t thought a few (relatively major) things through. But that’s ok, and it is good to know that there are people out there who really care about an issue and are willing to do something about it, even if they don’t know exactly what they’re doing
Wednesday night there was a large gathering of Davidson College alumni in the Botanical Gardens there in DC. They invited all Davidson grads in the area as well as any students currently interning here. They expected about 50 to show up, and the final RSVP count was 285. I’m not sure that many actually came, but it was really cool. Plenty of time to network, make connections, and get business cards. I read one guy’s text over his shoulder as he sent it to a friend: “This event alone was worth the price of tuition for four years.”
I’m not sure that is entirely true, and I’m sure my loving parents would say otherwise. But it was really neat to see all of those successful people, and they were all willing and happy to discuss anything with you – their job, their time in DC, or where the best place was to view the fireworks.
Thursday and Friday were relatively normal days. Thursday night in class we had a speaker who graduated Davidson in 2003, Andrew MacDonald. He works in the Foreign Service and spoke to us about the Arab Spring. In a few weeks he deploys to Kabul for two years! He was really interesting to listen to and really knew what he was talking about. And if someone asked him a question he didn’t know the answer to, he just said so and moved on.
Last night (Friday) I got off work early and got to relax at home a bit. After dinner I went over to Kellyn’s and hung out for a while. She had won some free “happy hour” thing at a bar here in DC where anyone that mentioned her name got in free and received major discounts. A group of us went and did that for a couple hours, and then I left to come home. Around midnight Patrick (my roommate in every post from abroad) and Paul Britton (found in this post) pulled into DC, so I met them and made sure they found a place to park. Patrick is staying with his girlfriend, Katie Lovett (who is in a couple other posts about DC), but Paul is staying on the couch with me and the other Paul.
There are lots and lots of Davidson people in DC for this 4th of July weekend. Which is actually really fun. As Paul (Britton) put it, “Davidson should have just chartered a bus up here from Charlotte there are so many of us.”
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