SB1070 = Apartheid

Update: Our worthless, cowardly governor passed this law. She would have signed Jim Crow if the state hyenas had told her to. What a weak, ignorant person.

Zach de la Rocha has been an active force in Arizona for some time now, attending protests against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and others within Arizona who promote pseudo-fascist, nationalistic, or racist laws or actions. Real Americans in Arizona (a.k.a. not racists or fascists) appreciate his voice. Now one of our most vocal, idiotic, and racist state legislators, Russell Pierce of Mesa, has recruited his party to pass a law that uses terror to frighten undocumented immigrants out of Arizona. This law is referred to as SB1070, and it promotes 21st century America apartheid. The move has made us the laughing stock of the country.

How can an Arizonan blogger abjure from weighing in? This is the situation as I see it.

SB1070 is the most terrifying and misguided law I have seen in my lifetime. The law requires people to show proof of citizenship if a law enforcement official has "reasonable suspicion" that someone is in the country illegally. If you don't have proof, you face a fine or jail time.

Our state is 1/3 Latino. This law puts nearly half the state - if we include other people of color or with accents with Latinos - in a defensive position. I'm white - blond hair, blue eyes, sunburn on a cloudy day white. This law doesn't threaten me. But it threatens many of my friends and neighbors. As the white population faces little chance of discrimination, the law creates a social dynamic that divides whites and non-whites - this is essentially apartheid. It's surreal that in April, 2010 I am writing about a law that threatens to divide whites and non-white in America. It's very sad.

Many Arizonans are upset about the derision we're facing from the rest of the country. Though I hate this law, I understand people's frustration. 58-year-old Arizona rancher, Bob Krentz Jr. was found shot to death on his ranch near the Mexican border. All signs point to illegal human or drug smugglers as the killers. What's more, we have many undocumented immigrants driving around our state uninsured. Drug cartels move massive amounts of drugs through our state and human traffickers use AZ as a highway. Car theft is out of control and Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the country. When I go hiking in national forests south of Tucson, the NPS has posted signs warning of dangerous drug smuggling activities in the area. So while the rest of the country can sit back and talk about immigration reform, we're left down here at the border to deal with the mess. Still, the Republican AZ legislature is to blame for making us look so foolish. I mean, they passed a law requiring presidential candidates to show a birth certificate to get on the ballot in Arizona. Birthers are the nation's most idiotic clowns. If it makes these people upset to share their country with Mexicans, it makes me sick to share my country with birthers.

And there's something about Arizona that you don't know until you live here. Low taxes and lax gun laws make the place seem libertarian, but it's really more like a police state. We have speeding cameras, we have foolishly tough D.U.I. laws, we have chain gangs, and public humiliation. Helicopters fly over Phoenix to fine people with green pools and they fine you $135 for having a license plate frame. So while people are calling Obama and his administration socialist for passing what really amount to consumer protection laws (it's fine to oppose healthcare reform, but you're an idiot if you think it's communism), we have people in the southwest ready to throw away their civil rights via SB1070. What makes them so ready to surrender their rights? Simple. They're racist. They blame everything on "illegals." Mexicans have become the scapegoat. Arizona's Orwellian "Two Minutes of Hate" are projected upon Mexicans. They dislike Mexicans more than they value freedom. And they're white and unconcerned about the rights of non-white Arizonans.

I have little hope that Governor Jan Brewer will do the right thing and veto this un-American, racist, foolish law. I love Arizona - the mountains and deserts, Bisbee, Tucson, Sedona, the canyons and cacti, the animals and the clearest night skies imaginable - but many of the people here are of the worst sort. They're the self-righteous ignorant. Self-centered and undereducated, they buy into simple ideologies (racism is a complex problem, but a simple thing to believe in) and they fight fervently to protect "their rights," which often means denying rights to others. Don't get me wrong, we need immigration reform. Mexico is our neighbor and we need to comprehensively work to create a viable relationship with them, but in Arizona and the other border states, we need a more secure border and better protect for our citizens now, not at the federal government's pace. One dead rancher at the hands of criminals is one too many. But, racism and apartheid are not only unjust and ignorant, they're also ineffective. We need to vote for intelligent, creative, forward-thinking legislators, not bigots who fuel anger and say what idiots want to hear.

For more information, visit Alto Arizona.

Junior Rangers

My Christmas trip home to Massachusetts gave me a chance to sift through the boxes of stuff I've accumulated over the years. I found some blog worthy artifacts and I hope to spin some of it into more lengthy and involved articles in the coming weeks. Some of these artifacts are on loan from the E. James Aldrich Museum, which is located in my parents' house and curated by my mother.

Here we have one of the certificates I earned in the Army Corps of Engineers Junior Ranger Program. It's funny to think that this was how I spent part of my summer twenty years ago. It was actually my second of three years in Junior Rangers. I did two years at West Hill Dam in Uxbridge, MA and one at Douglas State Forest, Douglas, MA.

I actually remember some of the activities we did in Junior Rangers. We made birch beer out of black birch bark and we learned taxidermy to stuff a roadkill chipmunk. Years later I remembered how to do it and stuffed a grouse that died when it flew into a friend's picture window. I learned the names many of the Northeastern plants and animals I can still identify in Junior Rangers.

I know that the National Parks Service also runs a Junior Ranger program. It's a great program for kids. It's not segregated by sex like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts*. Secondly, it's not so much of a commitment. No badges, no competitions... just nature education and time out of doors.


 *Note: I have no issues with the Girl Scouts. However, B.S.O.A. vs. Dale, in which the Supreme Court decided that the Boy Scouts can bar homosexuals, atheists, and agnostics from being troop leaders, doesn't sit well with me. It's a shame because Boy Scouts is otherwise a wonderful organization that promotes values like conservation and responsible citizenship. Please don't comment that they're a private organization and it's their right to bar who they want - I know that, but it's still sad.


Junior Rangers is a nice alternative for children who aren't into those organizations, but enjoy nature and conservation, and/or parents whose religious or ethical standpoints don't align with the B.S.O.A.