Forget the Alamo, Remember My Close-up!
It’s an X-10 dream come true… not to mention a step forward toward the American dream of those who traverse the Rio Grande without benefit of a pedestrian bridge or visa.
Imagine hundreds of surveillance cameras posted along the international river bed that forms a 1,000-mile border between Texas and Mexico. Thousands of illegal immigrants could find themselves as instant television stars, performing their dangerous border re-entry strategy on a 24/7 Internet channel.
You no longer need to imagine.
Texas Governor Rick Perry will make it so.
The Governor told law enforcement officials in his state that the government will buy $5 million worth of (hopefully X-10) surveillance cameras and invite the would-be immigrants to become television stars around the world. The pictures from the cameras would be broadcast to shut-ins all over the world on the Internet. “A stronger border is what Americans want and it's what our security demands and that is what Texas is going to deliver," the governor said.
While Perry doesn’t have the motion picture and television contacts owned by his fellow Republican governor in California, the governor could open the doors to stardom for Latinos whose highest hope once was to find a job picking fruit and sending money home.
Everyone knows that cameras do strange things to people. Add that to the pressures induced by being under the “eyes of Texas.” Once-shy, but talented Chicanos could take advantage of the cameras and hope that the producers of American Idol are watching. They might even conspire with south-of-the-border script writers to plan out high drama passion plays in the depth of the shallow river banks.
By the time the Internet spotters have called local authorities to report a border breach; the would-be immigrant might have gathered enough fan support to sign a $15 million per picture deal.
His people could then meet with Arnie’s people in Sacramento and do lunch. Maybe even direct a recall election in Texas.