9500 Liberty

I am very blessed to have friends that at interested, informed and passionate about a broad range of issues, and who are eager to be educated and be socially aware members of society.  I'm lucky because they inspire me, encourage me to look into topics I normally wouldn't and sometimes, like on Monday, give me tickets to wonderful events!

We went to see a screening of the documentary "9500 Liberty" at WHYY and while I could go on and on about it, I'll resist so the film can speak for itself.   It documented a community in Virginia which passed a law allowing police to use "probable cause" to question residents, aka the prominent Latino population, about their citizenship (sound familiar, Arizona?).  The law (and the racial undertones) ended up hurting the community in a multitude of ways.  It was interesting to see the people in that community become so blinded by fear (of change, of difference, of Salsa music) that they lost sight of reality. Even more, it was strange to think about how it is a situation that could unfold in any community in the US.  Anyways, the moral of the story is you should see the film.  It will be showing on WHYY on January 13th!

ps. I tried to change the screen shot of the video because I think it looks kind of creepy with that guy's face, but could not, so I apologize for the unflattering picture staring at you while you read this post.