Thread: AZ: Colangelo can't save elite from immigration backlash

Colangelo can't save the elite from immigration backlash
The Arizona Republic
July. 15, 2007 12:00 AM

The cat calls and boos echoing all the way from Arizona had reached Jerry Colangelo at his seaside retreat before I got him on the telephone early Friday morning.

"I've heard from people wanting me to comment," he said. "I'm supportive of the effort, but I really don't want to get totally involved as a spokesperson at this point."

The former boss of the Phoenix Suns and the Arizona Diamondbacks is still among the most well-known and most respected people in Arizona. Maybe the most. Just about every day someone comes to him hoping that he'll allow his name to be associated with a cause. advertisement

Recently, it was his old buddy Mac Magruder, the owner of a number of McDonald's franchises in the Valley.

Magruder and other business executives have decided to fight a new state law and a proposed initiative aimed at punishing those who employ illegal immigrants.

"Mac Magruder is a very dear friend of mine," Colangelo told me. "I have complete trust and confidence in him. I've been out of town, and he brought me up to date with what was happening. And I said, 'Mac, you can use my name because I support that and I support you.' I think that it (the new law) is wrong."

A news article about the effort of the so-called business elite was in Friday's Republic, and even before Colangelo spoke publicly on the subject I'd received e-mail comments saying, "As for Colangelo, shame, shame!"

And worse. A lot worse. And this is just the beginning.

The alarm on illegal immigration went off years ago, and we all pushed the snooze button. Everybody. Politicians. Businesspeople. Media types. All of us.

Gradually, as light began to shine on the problem and things got noisier and noisier, politicians, border specialists, even the heavy sleepers in the press, began to rub our eyes and at least become conscious of what was going on.

The very last folks to drag themselves out of the comfortable economic bed that they made for themselves are businesspeople.

Which is why it's funny that the group of high-profile entrepreneurs hoping to put a stop to the new law and proposed initiative would call themselves "Wake Up Arizona!"

They were snoozing while public concern over illegal immigration mounted. They dozed off all those years when Congress did nothing. And they chose to catch some Z's while anger and frustration replaced any kind of rational discussion.

But they're awake now, and they were smart enough to get Colangelo on their side. He isn't involved in the day-to-day battles of business and politics as he once was. He has all the money he needs and happily serves now as managing director of USA Basketball's national team. Most people can't afford - professionally or personally - to be perfectly honest. He can. When told about the hits he's taking on talk radio and from readers, he said, "At this point it doesn't bother me. It's part of the territory, I guess. But what's right is right, and what isn't isn't."

If local business leaders had gotten together earlier - years earlier - and had gotten Colangelo on board earlier - years earlier - they might have had a chance to initiate a give-and-take conversation about illegal immigration.

But not now. Even if they stop the new law in court, the initiative that follows will pass. And it should.

The immigration crisis was a spark in the basement of our house a few years back. It's a raging inferno now. The only way out is directly through the fire.
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... i0715.html

Businesspeople were not asleep when this was going on - they were there spearheading it.

They were there pushing politicians to let it happen and the news media to keep it quiet.

Business is the problem - always has been.

Do not give them a pass.

The only fact they have just become aware of is the fact that American people are wiling to speak out and take action. After so many years of our letting it happen, no wonder it has taken them by surprise.