Thread: What's Missing From the Fury Over Arizona's Immigration Law

What's Missing From the Fury Over Arizona's Immigration Law

By Mark Joseph

Published July 13, 2010
Comments (4)


I am the last person to object to the notion of ideology. We need ideologues. Both Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan are wonderful examples of pragmatic ideologues.

Both men charted out bold courses of action from the Right and Left and we are all better for having had them in our midst. Their ideological visions help us to better understand our own beliefs.

But watching events play out in and around the state of Arizona in the wake of the state's recent immigration law makes me more and more wary of blind allegiance to ideology and wary, too, of the emergence of a whole class of people who strike me as being immune to logic, reason, analogy and thoughtful debate, trapped in a Never Never Land in which conclusions are reached and then held on to, just because.

I see this in our attorney general and our head of Homeland Security, both whom, to their credit, have admitted that though they are dead set against the Arizona law, they haven’t actually read it.

I see it too, in an e-mail I received recently from a promoter who tells me my artist’s scheduled date on a major music tour in Phoenix has been cancelled because of the law. When I remind him that 17 other states are poised to pass similar laws he writes back “unbelievable.â€

[quote]
I’m no expert on immigration law but I have spent nearly half of my life living abroad and in most countries I’ve visited, as a foreigner, I’m well aware that I can be asked at any time for any reason for my “papers.â€

What's missing?

Respect for anyone who is not in a minority population, ie - white skinned people.