Ginger, my Irish Setter, and I watched Cast Away during our lunch last week. I have watched that film many times in the past quarter century. Tom Hanks's character is similar to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, even though it wasn’t the same storyline.

Robinson Crusoe

Hanks was a FedEx manager who was on a company plane that crashed in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. He was the only survivor on the plane. Interestingly, Hanks manages to reach a remote desert island with several FedEx packages.

Surviving FedEx packages

One of the packages contains a volleyball. Hanks had cut his hand while starting a fire. While opening a package with a volleyball, he smudged some blood from his hand, creating a face on the volleyball.

Hank’s friend Wilson

The movie is an interesting story about someone who lost everything and is trying to come to terms with relativity. Hanks lives on the deserted island for four years before he is rescued.

However, I have seen the movie many times. It ends with two heartbreaking scenes. Hanks’ girlfriend thought that he had died. After mourning for several years, she married. However, he stops at her place, and they discuss their situation.

That scene haunts me. Later that evening, Hanks sits in her living room talking to her and her husband.

It has a sad ending, but it is just a movie. However, where are there similar types of heartbreaking scenes in 2025? What about the planeload of 278 migrant terrorists sent to El Salvador? Even the Trump administration agreed that one of them was a mistake. Kilmar Abrego Garcia wasn’t a migrant or a terrorist.

I wonder how Garcia’s wife felt about her husband being deported to El Salvador. Hanks, in the movie, would never be with his girlfriend again. This is the real world. The US pays El Salvador $6 million to house our migrants. And they say that they can’t force El Salvador to return one particular person.

Additionally, beyond the claim that they are all terrorist migrants, one of the government's primary issues is that they aren’t White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP). They are Hispanics. Whether or not they are terrorists, which hasn’t been determined, they are entitled to a hearing. Merely rounding them up is based upon racism. Kilmar Abrego Garcia wasn’t a terrorist, which the government finally acknowledged. However, he was Hispanic. Whites have had and, unfortunately, still have problems dealing with non-whites, whether they are black, Asian, or from the Middle East. Xenophobia is alive and well in America—the land of the not-so-free.

A dozen years ago, I traveled to Myanmar, which our government still calls Burma. My tour guide had to pick up my itinerary at her home. Then, she added that her daughter was home on winter break. We walked into their home and were greeted by a nine-year-old, “Hi! My name is Ti Ti. Do you want to play some games?” We sat on the living room floor for 45 minutes, played Scrabble, and laughed. I left their home, realizing that I had met my granddaughter.

During those years, Ti Ti attended a college preparatory high school. I offered to have Ti Ti live in my home and attend the school where I taught. All she needed to do was to get a student visa. Talk about excitement.

Ti Ti went to the US Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar, to apply for a student visa. A woman interviewed her, but a man was in the room during the interview. He stopped the interview, which was being recorded. The man spoke with the interviewer and shook his head, meaning Ti Ti couldn’t get a student visa.

Ti Ti reapplied two additional times. In both interviews, the man was the only one doing the interview. He refused to grant her a student visa. He gave no reason for denying her a student visa.

Ti Ti is an excellent student. In fact, she took an online class from me and aced it. Go to College Days, and you will find Ti Ti’s section on my website, which contains a couple dozen of her essays. The first article was My First College Class.

The man at the embassy has issues with racism and xenophobia. Now, Trump also has issues with racism and xenophobia. I do not have any reason to believe that Trump will resolve his dislike for Hispanic migrants. I hope Garcia will be returned to his wife and all the others have their day in court.

I hope also to have Ti Ti and her family come to America. Nevertheless, as I journey down my yellow brick road, I am forced to accept the pain. I grasp Hanks's pain as he journeyed down his yellow brick road.