When I was a child and the movie, which used to cost 25 cents, got scary, I simply closed my eyes. The soundtrack usually signaled that the terror was either gone or at least diminished and that it was safe to resume watching. Some 80 years have passed, and I again find myself squeezing my eyes shut when those visions of thousands risking life and limb to cross borders in an effort to enter the U.S. appear on TV. Young people, old people, babes in arms, entire families, all desperate for a safer life.

I don’t presume to know how this problem can be solved, but I can imagine how horrifying it must be to live in a country, fearing for your safety and, perhaps, your life. Then, too, just a few years ago, there were the cruel depictions, also shown on TV, of children being separated from their parents at the U.S. border.

In reflecting on these horrors, the same melody plays over and over in my head — John Lennon’s “Imagine” and its meaningful lyrics: “Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for… Imagine all the people livin’ life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will be as one.”

Joyce Curtis

Eugene