They were shooting a film today on Lawrence, and filming a TV show or movie is quite a production. There were 4 or 5 big trucks, a crane to shoot from high, police to manage traffic, a lunch truck to feed everyone, and lots of tech people and actors and extras – including these. My first reaction of course is that it was really cool. I didn’t know anything about the show, and only learned later that it is the pilot for a FOX TV show. But it was clear that it was some kind of FBI SWAT team drama since there were a lot of people dressed in those kinds of uniforms. And I realized that they had used a storefront on Bernard and put up a sign indicating that it was a Muslim center. And sure enough when I looked it up I saw that it is the pilot for a show about an FBI agent investigating a domestic terrorism threat.
But that got me thinking that in these times, there is nothing that is not somehow political. And I wondered about how people that live in this community – particularly Muslims – might feel about the show being filmed here. And I wondered if all the immigrants who live here, including many who are living in fear of ICE or deportation, might feel about having all those men in uniform. Because even if they were not real, they certainly looked real. So then it didn’t feel so cool any more.