5 minute read
Media Reviews
American Exile
November 16, VOCES on PBS
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Celebrating his fi nal Veterans Day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy said, “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” Th e 65,000 non-US citizens who serve in our military at any given time would readily agree. Immigrants’ contributions to our armed forces, in fact, can be traced back to the Revolutionary War. But director John J. Valadez is indiff erent to history here. In his blistering documentary, American Exile, he aims his storytelling lens at two brothers in particular, Vietnam veterans Manuel and Valente Valenzuela: Mexican by birth, American to their very core.
A brief civics lesson: According to federal law, foreign-born soldiers who serve “may be naturalized without having resided, continuously immediately preceding the date of fi ling such person’s application, in the United States for at least fi ve years.” In 2017, however, President Donald Trump slowed this process down by instituting mandatory wait times. For veterans such as the Valenzuela brothers, whose service ended decades ago and who live in the United States on borrowed time, the threat of deportation is excruciating.
Th ousands of veterans have been expelled from the country since their service ended— some for minor legal infractions. What gives American Exile its emotional gravity is that the Valenzuela brothers are among them: Valente for assault and theft , Manuel for battery and resisting arrest. Th ese happened decades ago, and the central question remains: Should these misdemeanors disqualify them from citizenship? It’s a heated debate between the right and the left to this day.
What Valadez presents here is the brothers’ broader struggle of seeking citizenship, but also their internal battles with PTSD. Valente, especially, is haunted by his years of service—the emotional pain, we the viewers realize, has roots. Attention should be paid to Valadez’s gift ed cinematographer, Elia Lyssy, who weaves around the brothers like a silent prizefi ghter, capturing the pain their eyes cannot possibly hide.
What the fi lm says, implicitly, is that we have to do better by our veterans and our immigrant population, two communities that can overlap. If these women and men are good enough to fi ght for this country, they’re good enough to call it home. • TV-PG
In Case You Missed It
THE WOUNDED PLATOON | Frontline, PBS.org
This raw and powerful 2010 Frontline documentary by director Daniel Edge packs a lot in 90 minutes. Th e Wounded Platoon shows us the horror of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also the ongoing wars these soldiers face when they come home. Honest and at times brutal to watch, this seminal fi lm shows how fi ghting in any war can sully the human spirit. • TV-14
ICONS
By Julie Horne Traubert
Truth Gathered and Shared
HUMAN(KIND)
BY ASHLEE EILAND
WaterBrook
Iwant to meet Ashlee Eiland! I want to give her a huge, engulfing hug! OK, I realize that is probably not the proper way to begin a book review. It does, however, reveal how deeply Human(Kind) touched this reader. To wrap Ashlee Eiland in an embrace would be to gather Truth to oneself as Eiland has gathered Truth onto the pages of Human(Kind) in her search for herself.
Eiland gathers and shares events of her life in a manner that guides the reader to better self-knowledge. She asks herself: “Who am I? How do others see me? How do I view others?” These are penetrating questions she discovered as the Black child of affluent, professional Black parents living in a White culture.
Many of her accounts are joyful: total acceptance by members of a White track team. Some events are humorous. For example, she describes friends and family enjoying camping trips while in jest reminding themselves, “But Blacks don’t go camping!” Other stories bring tears as in the account where Eiland attempts to buy a homeless woman the food she sees her shoplifting, only to be called the N-word.
The anecdotes illustrate the wisdom Eiland offers in the subtitle of Human(Kind): How Reclaiming Human Worth and Embracing Radical Kindness Will Bring Us Back Together. This is a book about belonging to the human race, about healing racial wounds.
It reminds us to allow space for someone else’s truth. To do that requires the openness and willingness to step into another’s culture. From that vantage point, we can also more accurately view our own culture and our personal view of the world.
A nice addition at the conclusion of Human(Kind) is a series of questions provided for book group discussion or personal reflection. No matter how you reflect on this book, know that it will open your mind to another person’s experience, which is imperative in accepting all people.
Patti Normile is a retired teacher, chaplain, retreat director, author, and avid advocate for nonviolent resistance to wrongdoing.
A WHITE CATHOLIC’S GUIDE TO RACISM AND PRIVILEGE
BY DANIEL P. HORAN, OFM
Ave Maria Press
Father Daniel P. Horan says he grew up like most White Catholics: protected from the racism that permeates society. The schools, our Church, and culture sterilize the reality of our racist history and the racist structure that suppresses the Black community.
This book is honest and direct in defining the damaging effects of anti-Black racism and the deleterious assumptions of White privilege. But Father Horan doesn’t stop there; he asks the reader to join him with a call to action: “How to Be More of an Ally and Less of a Problem.” He emphasizes the urgency of doing something now to advocate for justice and gives suggestions for reflecting on your own racist biases, language, and behaviors so that you can make changes in your daily life and within your family and community.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 10 years since Richard Rohr’s Breathing Under Water was first published. Since 2011, this nowclassic exploration of the spiritual implications of addiction and the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is more important than ever, as we have grown more attached to new forms of technology, materialistic lifestyles, and unhealthy ways of thinking. With a new foreword by novelist Anne Lamott, the 10th anniversary edition of Breathing Under Water is an indispensable tool for confronting addiction— in whatever form it takes.
NEW RELEASE
BREATHING UNDER WATER: SPIRITUALITY AND THE TWELVE STEPS
BY RICHARD ROHR
