'At The Ready': Giving Someone Medicine When They're Not Sick
At the Ready follows El Paso teens facing the moral and ethical crisis that comes with chasing one of the most coveted jobs in their town. It takes you into the unique environment of the border town, distinguished by the prominence of law enforcement training and recruitment within its high schools. This film is directed by Macy Crow and follows three Latinx teens interested in pursuing careers as border patrol agents.
The documentary is incredibly well timed, aligned with the political shift that hugely affected the presence and morality of border patrols. It is centered around the criminal justice club at Horizon High School, where we often see students discussing these issues. When the border was militarized, one of the main subjects, Mason, very poignantly compares this action to “giving someone medicine when they’re not sick”.
Mason is the subject that I connected most with. During the filming of the documentary, Mason still identified as female and said that he joined the Criminal Justice club because it was a strong support system. The only issue with this was that he was hiding his sexuality and felt that the support would not continue if he was more open. Still, Mason stayed, feeling that this was his main source of community. The idea of clinging onto community is something I feel is very relatable to any teen. We are all trying to find our own safety nets. This is especially necessary when going through the throws of high school and adolescence.
Our first view of teenagers realizing that the future they have looked so eagerly towards is not exactly what they hoped it would be, comes when former President Trump set forth a policy to start separating immigrant families at the border. We see students really begin to struggle with what this job means. The students describe this as “heartbreaking”.
As one of the only jobs in El Paso with a starting salary near the national average, being a border patrol agent is very desirable. Many students view it as something to strive for and were able to find a passion within the high school training opportunities they received. This changes drastically as students begin to realize the extreme moral pitfalls that come into contrast with their identities that many of them hold close. Another subject is Cristina, a criminal justice club alumni who becomes a part of the Border Patrol Explorers program. She tells a story about seeing a car full of children being deported at work. This is a pivotal point for her. At this moment, she says that as much as she loves the job, she feels as though they are “cutting off people’s dreams”.
One of the biggest themes displayed in the film is the hypocrisy of the border patrol field. One teacher admits that although he recruits students for law enforcement, he feels as though his time in it has caused a lot of problems in his life and would never let his own children go into it. The main subjects of the film, Cristina, Mason, and Cesar, gain their own understanding of this hypocrisy.Their outward views and priorities shift along with the political climate. Cristina is the most prominent example of this. When Ted Cruz beats Beto O’ Rourke in the 2018 election, we see her sob into her mother’s arms, seemingly losing faith in any possibility for morality to exist within her career. She chooses to stay, believing that her family validates their struggle through her success. Cesar decides that his family must be his priority, and moves to Juarez to live with his father who can no longer enter the US to reignite their relationship. Mason realizes that he wants to be supported for his complete self and that the criminal justice club was not a place that was able to do that in the way he needed. He chooses to move away for college, where he finally feels free to express the opinions he has always had as well as his true identity. At the end of the movie, we see a clip from a youtube video of Mason announcing that he is transgender and that he will be documenting it all on his youtube channel. This is a bit of a bittersweet ending, but it does give a more complete picture of what this experience truly can be. At the Ready is a beautifully complex film that shows us the difficulties of feeling trapped in a passion that can’t align with our morals.
- Written by Cherie Banuri
