回學校上課--《 c a t i z e 》

回學校上課

《波士頓法律》第三季褪了色，直至尾二那一集，才教人叫好。神父窩藏鄰國非法入境者，婚禮證不下去給逮捕了，檢察官與辯方律師alan shore結案陳詞。

Assistant US Attorney Kevin Sciarra:
A burglar robs your house. His friend hides him from the police. They should both go to jail, shouldn't they? That's exactly what happened here, only on a much larger scale. Our country is quickly being robbed of its resources by those who illegally infiltrate our borders. Welfare, public education, our prison system, American medicine—all are being drained by the influx of illegal aliens. And remember, under Federal law, hospitals are required to treat anyone who comes in with an emergency, whether or not they're insured, documented, or able to pay. In California alone, eighty-four hospitals are closing their doors because of the rising number of illegal immigrants and their non-reimbursed tax on our system. We are nearing the breaking point. This isn't about being heartless. It's about having to face a crippling problem. It would be nice to help everybody, but we just can't do it any more. And it's not compassionate to do it. Don't be fooled. Father McClinton is not sparing suffering. He is simply transferring it, reallocating it to Americans—to you (points) and me. To our children. He's committing a crime, and he needs to be held accountable . . . even if he is a priest. (turns and walks to his table, sits)

Alan Shore: (rises, buttons his jacket as he walks to face the jury)
In 1903, my great-grandfather came here from Scotland. He was sixteen years old. I remember when I was about seven, him telling me that he had sailed across the ocean to find his fortune. It was the happiest day of his life, he said—the day he arrived here, in the United States of America. Our nation is so different today. It's crowded, too much traffic, not enough housing, not enough jobs, not enough care—we're overcome. And, recently, our sense of national pride has shifted to anationalistic, institutionalized paranoia and suspicion of foreigners. And, within that shift, there's been an erosion of our civil rights, our democracy has often given way to autocracy, and we've systematically alienated much of the rest of the world. But of all the ways that America has lost sight of what it means to be America, immigration—it's not just a part of our heritage or landscape, it's how we were born as a country, and then became the American dream. Understandably, we can't just keep letting everybody in. We've got security issues, limited resources, and at some point— (chuckles) But what to do with those who are already here, and have been here for years, as part of our communities, workforce, our families? Do we just throw them out for being undocumented? Because, as a nation, we've cultivated them, wooed them to be here. And what exactly do we mean by, “undocumented”? Many of these people have documents spilling out of their pockets. They file tax returns, they're issued driver's licenses, library cards. The government actually paves the way for illegal immigrants to open bank accounts here. Bank of America and Citigroup offer them loans and mortgages. Wellpoint, the nation's largest health care provider, sells insurance to them, while Sprint and Verizon offer them cell phone contracts. Contrary to the popular myth that undocumented workers are a drain on our economy, they are, in truth, vital to it. That's why this issue is so complicated. In a very significant way, either you or a family member or a friend—we all have at least one, if not many, undocumented immigrants living in our lives, and if we just start whisking them away, every one of us will lose people we care about, rely on—people we love. But with perhaps as many as twenty million undocumented immigrants living in this country—do not think for a second this doesn't affect you on a very personal level, as it affected my client. Father McClinton reached out to help somebody he cared about—one of his parishioners, who needed a bed for her and her eight-year-old son to sleep on. Does that make him a criminal? The fact that we're in this courtroom to discuss anything other than what's to be done for this woman, the fact that we're here instead to punish this priest—that's what's criminal! We can no longer be the land of dreams to the rest of the world, but when I think of the look in my great-grandfather's eyes as he would talk about how truly blessed he felt to be an American, to be in a nation that prided itself on its compassion, its freedom, its true sense of fairness—when I think about that, I thik how lucky we are that there are times when we still get to believe that. Please, go back to that room and declare this day to be one of those times.