Where My Country Has Gone

Consider this:

“I can hear their jack boots again, although I’m not in Nazi Germany, and I’m not in red China. These are echoes in my home land, their every value un-American, a spit in the face to the authors of the Constitution. These are ugly days, ugly times and ugly words. From lies and disinformation ignorance is born. Can you smell the hatred being bred from fear? And don’t you understand when you give your rights away there is no freedom left to die for? Where has my country gone? You can look to the alternative: turn from the conservative, the backward fascist-like prospects-that saves us by enslaving us. Who strip our rights away with no guarantee of improved homeland security.” –Justin Sane

I’ve heard a lot about “Socialism” lately, and not much about the fascist like policies of the Republican Party of Arizona.

For those of you who don’t know, the Arizona governor, Republican Jan Brewer signed into law a bill that would basically round up all individuals who look “illegal” in the state of Arizona and throw you in jail if you don’t show “documentation.” To get a sense of this bill, The New York Times reported today “(the bill) gives the local police broad powers to check documentation “when practicable” of anyone they reasonably suspect is an illegal immigrant.” In short, Mitt Romney would be thrilled.

The state of Arizona law enforcement now has grounds to solicit you for “documentation” if you look Hispanic or have any other features of being an immigrant, which isn’t outlined in the first place, and if you are an “alien” you are subsequently thrown in jail. Plain and simple. I can think of similar instances in the past where this was actually encouraged, oh let’s say Jim Crowe laws and hmmm the Holocaust?

This isn’t just the state legislature of Arizona: Former Republican Presidential nominee John McCain has expressed support of the law, changing his stance from a little over two years ago when he expressed support of a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, but I guess these pols really will do anything to get re-elected.

To put this into perspective, as of 2008, Hispanics as a percentage of the State of Arizona’s population was 30% estimating to about 1,965,000 Hispanics who are now subject to investigation by the state’s law enforcement. Meanwhile, the actual figure of “illegals” in Arizona, according to the New York Times is about 450,000 people.

Yes, the Republican Party wants to round up 450,000 people and send them back to where they came from, praise Mitt Romney!

Basically, the bill should simply read: “Cops: Please exercise racial profiling.”

The most ironic thing about all of this is that the Democratic Party has continuously been called “socialists” for trying to protect consumers, sick people and Main Street over Wall Street. Not to mention the Democratic Party is in support of a path to citizenship for these individuals. If you would like to know more about my views on immigration further, please refer to Ed Plamowski’s op-ed on this page regarding Legal Immigration.

The problem here is simple: the Republican Party in Arizona and a prominent United States Senator, former Presidential nominee John McCain is in support of completely throwing the Constitutional rights guaranteed to every person living in this nation out the window and, on top of all that, discriminating based on race/appearance. I have never been more ashamed and disappointed that such a law could even exist within our great country built upon one simple premise: Freedom.

I am truly outraged and saddened that a prominent political party in our nation is actually in support of such a practice. What of their ancestors? What of the Irish immigrants who came to this city, Boston, to start a new life, who were once discriminated against in a similar ways in instances in which signs were hung in Boston shops that said “Help Wanted: No Irish Need Apply.”

The point is that our country was BUILT on Immigration. The real question I have for these prominent Republicans is this: were the Pilgrims “illegal?” Were your ancestors from England, Ireland, Italy and countless other nations “illegal?” What’s the difference today from those coming from Mexico in search of a better life, better jobs, and better homes from those who came from these countries in search of the same exact things?

The state of Arizona should be ashamed of themselves, and the population should truly “vote the bums out.”