This post doesn’t live here anymore. It migrated to my other blog:
The Big No-No: An Outsider on American Fascism,
where it resides under the title:
“Are You a U.S. Citizen?: Crossing Internal Checkpoints While Alien”
What Folks Have Been Reading
WHAT I HAVE BEEN READING
In the late 60s Richard Proenneke built his own cabin in the Alaskan wilderness with only a few simple tools. He spent most of the rest of his life there. Sam Keith fleshed out Proenneke's diary of his first 16 months, when he was making his home by a lake. I love these kinds of books!
An old Oji-Cree healer and her nephew canoe down a river in Canada, away from the world of white people. They both have to come to terms with their past. The woman has lost most of her tribe and the young man is traumatized from his recent experience in the Belgian trenches of World War One. My second book by Boyden. Can't say enough about him.
An incredibly comprehensive history of everything related to slavery in the Southern United States, from the beginning of the colonies to the end of the Civil War. Over 700 pages and I took over 30 pages of notes. I will be sharing over many posts to come!
Hamid's debut novel. I love this author. A young man in Lahore, Pakistan, is the victim of love, drugs, obsession, the class system and his complete lack of self-awareness.
A golem, created in Poland and brought to life on a ship to America, and a jinni who was trapped in a flask a thousand years ago and released in New York -- the most unusual immigrants you'll ever meet.
The only part of her life a Korean woman can control is her body, so she withdraws into it. Harrowing.
Autobiography lightly disguised as a novel about the son of Southern migrants growing up on the streets of Harlem, New York City, in the 1940s and 50s. Written like you're hearing the whole story in a bar. Quite a feat.
The story of a man struggling to make a living in Morocco. No plot, no clearly defined characters, but fascinating in its authenticity.
Pakistani man tells an American about his experience as a college student and employee of an assessment firm in America years ago. Smart, nuanced and pretty darn honest considering the unreliable narrator.
Wow! The answer to the inane platitudes about how all parents love their children and how children should always respect their parents. The protagonist must come to terms with his deeply flawed immigrant parents in order to change himself.
Seven short stories about life during the Kim Il-sung regime, by a writer who still lives and works in North Korea, were smuggled out of the country and translated. Mind-boggling stuff.
A 15-year-old autistic narrator wants to know who killed a neighbor's dog, and ends up much further out of his comfort zone than he planned. Wonderful read!
In politics, education, religion, agriculture, business--it turns out that dumbing down has been here from the start.
Fifty years of Istanbul seen through the eyes of a street vendor who migrates to the city as a young boy. It's also a window into the complicated dance between men and women in Turkey.
Hey, don't laugh, at least I'm trying.
A Norwegian immigrant is cooped up with six other people on a tiny island off the coast of Maine all winter in 1873. A woman in the present researching the Norwegian immigrant is cooped up with three other people on a tiny sailboat. What could possibly go wrong?
A man stuck between two worlds in more ways than one. Fascinating!
Historical novel about early contacts between first nations and the French in Canada. Beautifully written story that doesn't pull any punches. I bought his other two novels right away.
Beautifully written. By my children's favorite English and Creative Writing teacher! It's got rave reviews and we're all very proud of her.
Suki Kim is a Korean-American journalist. She poses as an evangelical Christian posing as an English teacher at a school for the sons of North Korea's elite. Her experience and the information she manages to get via writing assignments are incredible. Definitely a lot more eye-opening that any CNN special.
This. Explains. Everything!!!
Why has Islam not undergone a reformation like Christianity? Why is it so easy for Islamic extremist groups like IS to recruit young muslims? What would it take for Islam in fundamentalist Islamic countries to enter modernity? Does the West have a role to play?
Amazing! A man wanders endlessly through a dreamscape, becoming other people, himself in the past, everything is fluid. Kafkaesque disconnect between people and their different needs.
A multi-layered novel about the history of Libya. A fast read, but one you can repeat and find something new each time.
Twelve Americans go missing in Burma/Myanmar during a tour. Touching and hilarious, but mostly hilarious.
The most unusual murder mystery I've ever read. Incredible writing. It haunted me for days.
The quote on the front mentions that these stories are exhilerating. I couldn't disagree more. They are almost unbearably painful to read, and yet I couldn't put them down. Very well done, apart from the third story, which is written in the second tense. Please let me know if you know of ONE story that works in second tense.
Resident Alien -- Being Dutch in America 
My understanding is that there is a certain distance within the border in which the Border Patrol can set up checkpoints and has greater leeway than they would on, say, a random freeway in Oklahoma. Those checkpoints you’re talking about fall within those boundaries, and it’s within the Federal government’s power to challenge motorists at the checkpoint and expect answers.
The best bet for anyone is just to give an honest, straightforward answer so they can get on with their day. Giving them flip answers could result in being delayed.
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Sure, it would be quicker to just do what they say. But the whole point is that they don’t actually have the power to hold you if you don;t answer their questions, and the only reason they get away with it is exactly because people in general find it more convenient to be on their way than to stand on their rights.
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Don’t forget, they teach them to lose a little thing like ‘humor’ in police academy.. Quite black and white those fellers!
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Apparently. I think their lack of a sense of humor also has to do with their feelings of insecurity, which they must have, doing what they have no right to all day long.
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Barbara,
I watched the first video you pointed to, and I guess the counter-argument to be made is that you can refuse to cooperate without being obnoxious or rude to the people involved (hint – don’t bring up the term Nazis). The people manning the roadblocks didn’t make the policy decision to set them up, and they have no power to change that policy. If you want to express outrage, then either (1) express it directly to the people who decided to set up these roadblocks or have the power to influence that decision (legislators), or (2) write about it and try to get your friends/readers to join you in any effort to get this changed. Ok, so you’re doing option 2 already. Let people know how they can help.
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I don’t mean to compare the checkpoints to the civil rights movement, because the inconvenience of checkpoints is dwarfed compared to the racism of segregation. However, whatever the range of a problem, standing up to it, like Rosa Parks did, brings attention to it in a way that writing about it or trying to convince your congressperson. I don’t really like the Nazi references either, because you’re right; the officers themselves can’t help it. But the politely repeated “Am I being detained” aren’t hurting anyone.
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The US Supreme Court upheld these checkpoints, 7 to 2, in 1976:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2012_S1
If they keep out illegal aliens . . . YAY!
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Yes, it upheld the checkpoints, but you have to have a suspicion to ask people where they’re from or to search their car. Most people don’t know that. As to keeping illegal aliens out, they don’t. They just keep most illegal aliens south of the checkpoints. But I agree that the checkpoints do stop lots of illegal aliens and–more importantly, to me–drugs from going north. That said, they do infringe on legal people’s rights, and that should be addressed.
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US police terrify me – some of them just swagger about with a terrifying combination of ignorance and aggression and THEY HAVE MASSIVE GUNS!!!??? Sorry if this offends any lovely American policepersons – I’m basing this on some horrible experiences I’ve had in US airports… Barbara – it must be very tempting to wind them up…
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You have no idea!
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