Google SB 1070 now!

           In the past two months that I've lived in southern Arizona, I have not had one conversation about SB 1070 with another resident of Arizona.  The people  in my life who are the most interested in the anti-Mexican day-labor law are those who live anywhere other than Arizona.  After a conversation three days ago with New Yorker, I realized that I was hesitant to voice a strong opinion about what is happening in my backyard (the Mexican border is 40 miles south of where I eat and sleep).  I wondered if I really knew enough about the complex problem to just write SB 1070 off as “that stupid anti-American-dream-for-brown-people law”.   So, I did what you’re supposed to do in these situations, I Googled SB 1070.  Here are a few things I found out:

Did you know the majority of Arizonans support SB 1070 but, a recent poll shows 38 percent of Arizona residents do not believe the law represents a real solution to the problem of immigration in Arizona?  Yeah. The residents of this state support something that they don’t ultimately believe will solve the problem.  And, 48 percent of those polled also believe that Latinos are more likely to be discriminated against than they were six months ago. So, what are they hoping to accomplish here?

            Do I think that SB 1070 will result in greater racial profiling by Arizona police? Absolutely.  Here’s why. It is estimated that Arizona’s illegal immigrant population grew from 330,000 in 2000 to 560,000 in 2008. They represent 8 percent of the adult population and 11 percent of Arizona’s prison population.  It seems to me that law enforcements relationship with the illegal immigrant population is well established, and it’s not positive. 

            Do I agree with the 27 percent of Arizona residents recently polled that think enforcement of SB 1070 will largely or completely resolve the issue of illegal immigration (in Arizona)? Nope.  In my view, for those people, SB 1070 is about sending a message that Arizona and the United States is off-limits to all illegal immigrants.  If you want in, you have to come here legally. However, what about all the employers willing to subvert the system and give illegal immigrants jobs for their own profit?  I also wonder if those who support the law will continue to support it when the prisons overflow and we have to crack down on businesses that hire illegal aliens because SB 1070 does not stop the flow from across the border. I heard on the radio this morning that there is a shortage of agricultural jobs in Mexico, which means, even more labor is expected to come across the border, SB 1070 or no SB 1070. Good times.

Sources:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2010/07/25/20100725immigration-poll-demographic.html

http://www.cis.org/announcement/AZ-immigration-SB1070

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2010/05/11/sb-1070-poll-71-of-americans-believe-new-immigration-law-will-lead-to-hispanics-getting-hassled-by-the-man

Nothingness haunts being

           The only man sitting at the bar smelled sour, like curdled milk.  Sweat saturated his t-shirt and left a jagged line of evaporated salt along the collar.  Maybe he had been touring the city all day? Maybe he had been standing in an interminable line for tickets to a Broadway show? Maybe he had been loading crates headed for Los Angeles?  He wore still white running shoes with dark blue and orange lightening bolts on the side.  A tourist. It seemed odd that a tourist would be drinking alone in a bar on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Where were his companions? Only his slightly used walking shoes led one to presuppose this man was a tourist.  He did not carry a camera, nor did he have with him any shopping bags emblematic of Soho.

The middle-aged man appeared to be waiting on someone to walk through the front door.  He leaned on the bar and propped his face up with his right hand, so that, he could easily check the door every fifteen seconds.  His watchful gesture was a mere tilt of his chin to the left.  Like a tomcat greets a breeze. He was so close to the door, he would sense the moment it cracked open.  Was he looking forward to this person’s arrival? The man finished his pint with three gulps.  Was he anxious about the person(s) coming through the door? Was he drinking alone to avoid a confrontation with who ever might be coming in? Possibly the intention of the meeting was a hostile confrontation, rather than a happy reunion.

The visitor did not wear a wedding ring.  This smelly bachelor may have been waiting to meet a beautiful woman and was drinking to loosen up, release his authentic self. He sat with his legs winged apart, his head in hand, hardly the posture of an expectant lover.  A dark V-shape of perspiration from his shoulders to the small of the back accentuated his stout frame and protruding belly, making it possible to apprehend this man’s indifference to his being and his impact on his surroundings.

Nonetheless, this man sat in the way of a phenomenon. Something would happen, as we know from experience.  A woman with strong perfume crosses your path causing you to sneeze. You look up and spy a thief freeing a woman’s handbag from her shoulder.  Behold this man who was drinking a beer at this bar on a Saturday afternoon!  Whenever the door should open, when desire should manifest in the doorway and through the bar, this man, his being, would become a part of the background to the phenomenon, the same as the stool under him.  After six pints, this pungent bachelor left the bar.  Subsequent events in the bar would not negate that our hearty binge drinker who left moments before had sat on a stool close to the door.