I am not a Latino living in Arizona, but I understand what they're going through these days... Every person of color pays higher premiums for the right to live in America one way or another. It has been that way from the beginning.
So to all you Arizona Latinos, suck it up, says Arizona's State Legislature. Take it like a man, a woman or an innocent child who just doesn't understand what he or she will understand later on in life about the politics of race: American racial profiling builds strong character...
Ask the families of Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr... Ask Dr. Henry Louis Gates, and then try and ask Rodney King... if you can find him. How quickly we forget our past transgressions...
This latest and saddest chapter in the "Book of Republican Politics" is not just about scapegoating other ethnic groups or races. This is an equally sad attempt at controlling the Arizona ballot box for the elections of 2010, also known as voter supression. More Arizona Latino voters would mean more election victories for Democrats in a state that was once ruled by Republicans. Passing a law that rounds up all Mexicans that "look illegal" will never fly higher than the smoke-screen that it is.
This latest and saddest chapter in the "Book of Republican Politics" is not just about scapegoating other ethnic groups or races. This is an equally sad attempt at controlling the Arizona ballot box for the elections of 2010, also known as voter supression. More Arizona Latino voters would mean more election victories for Democrats in a state that was once ruled by Republicans. Passing a law that rounds up all Mexicans that "look illegal" will never fly higher than the smoke-screen that it is.
Here's why... Latinos make up over 30% of the Arizona population, and provide needed labor and services that would cripple the entire state if they decided to leave or were pushed out.The Arizona economy could not withstand any significant loss in Latino numbers, nor could it withstand another economic boycott such as the boycott heaped on the state for not approving the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday until 1992.
This brazen attempt at intimidating voters of color is from the same play book that kept thousands of votes from being counted during the 2000 Florida election that gave us George W. Bush... The same play book that disenfranchised thousands of voters in the Ohio election of 2004 that gave us George W. Bush again. The same play book that vilified "ACORN" in its attempt to register voters within communities of color who traditionally support the Democratic candidate.
Count on big Democratic gains in Arizona in coming elections, because Latinos are there to stay.
G.L.M.
"YOU CAN TELL BY THEIR CLOTHES"
"YOU CAN TELL BY THEIR CLOTHES"
