When I was a kid I loved to read biographies. Maybe it was because I was a poor white-trash kid and everyone else's life was so glamorous in comparison. I don't know. I do like to read about how people became who they became. Lately I have been watching documentaries for pretty much the same reason. I signed up for NetFlix, which gives me access to tons of them. I don't go in for the exposé stuff. I really don't care to be told how bad something is. Life often sucks and I already know that, so I don't need Michael Moore or some other blow hard reminding me. Since I can't do anything to make health care cheaper, or make the war go away or make politicians more honest, I don't need to be filled in on the extent of the mess. What I do like are documentaries about regular people and their lives. I have seen three lately that I thought were interesting. Bear with me if have seen these or or just stop reading if this seems like a snooze. I got a movie called Wetback. It was the story of Central American refugees trying to sneak into the United States. It is amazing to me, the hardship people will endure to get a better life for themselves. The movie points out something that all Arizonans already know and that you might too. For all the bluster and complaining about the treatment that illegal immigrant Mexicans receive from US officials and citizens, their treatment of the Central Americans who have to sneak across Mexico to get to the US, is a hundred times worse. I read a comment recently from a Latino activist who said that Mexicans have a saying the Americans treat their dogs like people and people like dogs. They need a mirror when it comes to their treatment of Central American refugees. I also got a movie called A League of Ordinary Gentlemen. It is a documentary about a group of Microsoft millionaires who decided to buy The Professional Bowlers Tour when it went broke in 2002. Let me tell you, the life of a person trying to earn a living through professional bowling is decidedly unglamorous. A very few men make a very good living and most just scrap by. I am always interested in how immigrants view America, since so many of we citizens take it for granted. There is a documentary called Spellbound, about the national spelling bee. What makes this interesting is the lives of the contestants. Many are from rural America where learning things by rote is still popular and others are immigrants, particularly immigrants from India. An Indian father in the movies says that if you work hard and get an education in America, you can move up from where you are, which he says is largely impossible in Indian society. I think recent immigrants and kids in poorer sections of the country understand that knowledge is the key to bettering their situation, so they are drawn to contests of knowledge. Most Americans have fallen for the notion that competition has no place in the school environment. I think that is a mistake. When kids grow up thinking that we all get the same result, regardless of effort, they are set up for failure in life. Just my thought. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky