Ask Me No Questions (Rate: B)

{ June 5, 2009 @ 8:09 pm } · { Uncategorized }

Like many other people, Nadira and her family are illegal citizens. They lived and grew up in America, but after 9/11 everything changes and Mulsims are thought to be dangerous and are suspected terrorists. Being looked down upon a country you consider as your home is agonizing, and leaving it is even worse. When Nadira and her sister are told to carry on with life, while their parents are detained, of course nothing is the same. Even if things do come back to normal, they’ll still have to carry the fact that they once disobeyed the law, which a lot of people take for granted.

Nadira and Aisha try to find a way to bring their family back together, sacrificing their school hours and grades, and even the chance to become a valedictorian. Eventually, Nadira finds a mistake with the documents the government mistakenly thought was theirs, and their family faces less consequence.

These stories are familiar because it is part of the contemporary world. Even Filipinos in a similar situation have a nickname – TNT – or Tago ng Tago, which means an illegal alien who is in hiding. Though some know that they have illegal documents, others are just tricked to have legal ones to make money. For those who have illegal documents, I wonder how they can live each day with guilt or fear in their hearts, thinking that they can be caught anytime and get into more trouble, losing their jobs and getting into more financial problems.

However, citizenship shouldn’t be the base of acceptance within a country. Though it’s still right to obey the law, those who are illegal shouldn’t be seen as outcasts and avoided; rather, we should help them because they have the same hope – the hope for a better future.

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