April 4, 2007

Mexican/US Border Production - 14 Days - "The Human Bridge"

Three days have lapsed since the completion of this short film production on the Arizona/Mexican border. I began the journey with no real expectations and made my exit with an insight to the human position that has yet again changed my life. I made the journey with friends. They believed in me as I believed in them.

I had worried for so long. I would miss my love. I would miss my life. The border seemed heartless and dangerous. It was not a place I really wanted to go to. But I did and now I am hungry to see more, take more risks and help the suffering of human beings everywhere. Does this not sound so self-absorbing? I don’t care. This is how I feel and nothing has changed that for so long now. This at the same time also concerns me. My love at home Lillie, would be angry and proud at the same time. She understands me. She understands my passion for my work and human life. She understands my love for her. She understands it all so well. I can count on her without fail. The people I came across on this journey do not in many cases have that support to fall back on. In fact, many I came across barely have anything to count on beyond the shirts on their backs. Yet, I found something profound in their demeanor. I cannot say they were happy to be in the situation they found themselves in. On the other hand their lack of personal possessions offered little complication to the situation they found themselves in. They had only themselves, created by God with no other confusion to stray away from his power and love. Now I would ask with the greatest respect that this does not provide you with the wrong impression about my own position. I am not terribly Godly. I have never really found the need to enter a place of worship for any other reason than to admire a beauty found in such buildings. Perhaps that may now change. In Altar I witnessed people in absolute poverty. Walking, no wandering to no place in particular but certainly free of modern day constraints. They appeared to gravitate around one point of interest. The plain church stood in the middle of the square in this dusty town. I was drawn to it like a magnet. It drew those migrants around me like a magnet as well. They would walk in slowly and admire its reverence with awe. The glory and sanctuary it provided offered a sense of peace. This countered the awful conditions that they found themselves in. They would enter heads bowed with a natural giving and surrender to the serenity it offered. I watched them for some time and felt one with them. After a while I entered too, reminded by my cameraman to remove my hat. I managed to remove it just before reaching the first pew. I felt changed in this place. Outside, poverty and despair. Inside, peace and love.

That moment changed me forever. I found a common peace with these wonderful people around me. I felt I could reach out and hold them with no fear. They were my family and I was their servant. If I could have reached into an imaginary place and offered them life with no pain, I would have. For me, any act to help them would help myself as well. This is not rationalization. Not self-seeking are these thoughts in any way. I realized at that moment that it is not money, material possessions or any other modern convenience but love that would change their lives. Love leads to everything else. This is not a fallacy but a reality and if only we understood it, life would be so wonderful. For them, for me and for you however far away we find ourselves from the place where our fellow human beings are in pain.

You have to see what I see. All the problems we face, and find again and again in places around the world, including those where human migration patterns continue unabated, are never as they may appear. We all suffer from prejudices and fears that come from displacement. A displacement of ourselves away from the disturbance determines how we all approach the problem. We may accept them, defend them, disown or even deplore them. Depending upon our own position we may understand them, vermanently ignore them or simply ignore the situation completely. I have taken a journey and experienced all these feelings at some time in my life. This is a natural flaw in the human position. If we can easily accept that then a way forward for each of us is possible. More importantly if we understand this condition together, a community can begin to evolve where collaboration and cooperation will surface.

Will it ever happen? Well frankly I doubt it, unless all of us face up to the common weakness we all share. A weakness based upon our displacement from those around us far or near. A weakness that comes from our "laisser-faire" (noninterference in the affairs of others) approach to human turmoil.

All I know is this. My time on the border was no doubt one of the most profound of my life. I came across US Border Patrol Guards. I came across ranchers from both sides of the border. I came across Minutemen. I came across ordinary people and migrants from Mexico seeking a better way of life for themselves and their loved ones. I touched the hands of small children. They were all beautiful. Some rough around the edges. Some very opinionated. Some arrogant but all wonderful with a compassion for human beings around them. I did not find one single individual who had any malice against those around him or her. They shared a common graceful appreciation of the problems that all faced together in that region. They all impressed me beyond words could say. They were all human beings sharing history. They were all people unknowingly building a human bridge between cultures. They will succeed and our children will see it clearly through the measures of freedom, friendship and understanding they enjoy. These conditions coming from the labor of those before them that made it possible for them. I know it will happen. One day it will happen.

David William Gibbons

April 4, 2007

My appreciation, respect and love go to those around me that made this journey possible.

Sam
Clinton
Duane
Jake
Lillie
Rocky