Your story “Young, All-American, Illegal” is riveting and heartbreaking (HCN, 8/16/10). It should be required reading and viewing by anyone involved in immigration issues, regardless of political stripe. And that means all of us.

I confess: The brouhaha surrounding the Arizona “show me your papers” debate didn’t matter to me, other than to rouse my unacknowledged bigotry. Here in liberal, white-bread Boulder, I figured that if “they” weren’t getting in trouble, then “they” wouldn’t have to worry about being found out. How thoughtless and arrogant I have been.
Cheers to the protesters who staged the sit-in at McCain’s and Feinstein’s offices. Their courage and determination put the rest of us to shame. The article and video opened my mind. When the protests come to my city — as they must — I’ll be on the lines with the kids.  

Jeannie Patton
Boulder, Colorado

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Capturing hearts and minds

by Jeannie Patton, High Country News
August 24, 2010

<h1>Capturing hearts and minds</h1> <p class="byline">by Jeannie Patton, High Country News <br />August 24, 2010</p> <p>Your story “Young, All-American, Illegal” is riveting and heartbreaking (<a class="external-link" href="../42.14/young-all-american-illegal">HCN, 8/16/10</a>). It should be required reading and viewing by anyone involved in immigration issues, regardless of political stripe. And that means all of us.</p> <p>I confess: The brouhaha surrounding the Arizona “show me your papers” debate didn’t matter to me, other than to rouse my unacknowledged bigotry. Here in liberal, white-bread Boulder, I figured that if “they” weren’t getting in trouble, then “they” wouldn’t have to worry about being found out. How thoughtless and arrogant I have been.<br />Cheers to the protesters who staged the sit-in at McCain’s and Feinstein’s offices. Their courage and determination put the rest of us to shame. The article and video opened my mind. When the protests come to my city — as they must — I’ll be on the lines with the kids. &nbsp;</p> <p><i>Jeannie Patton<br />Boulder, Colorado</i></p> <div class="wp-block-group hcn-print-edition-box"> <p>This article appeared in the <a href="/?p=189328">print edition of the magazine</a> with the headline <span class="hcn-magtitle">Capturing hearts and minds</span>.</p> </p></div> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/42-15/capturing-hearts-and-minds/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info Country News&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cropped-HCN_Logo-Monogram_White_Sq-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=114893&amp;amp;ga4=G-0NS3WVPPTN&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/42-15/capturing-hearts-and-minds/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hcn.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

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