Living in the State of Irrational Reactions...
Well, life here has gotten rather interesting since Thursday. For those living under a rock, that's when parts of the (in)famous SB1070 took effect. All the damned rhetoric that's been flying around has really worn on me. Yes, we need immigration reform but this is certainly going to prevent any meaningful discussion as long as passions are flaring. One thing I worry about is that some people will get out of hand and the potential for someone to get hurt is rising.
Thursday morning, some individuals took it upon themselves to make their opinions known by dumping tires and broken glass into the travel lanes of Interstate 19-just south of Tucson. Eyewitness reports were that approximately 12 individuals traveling in three or four SUVs stopped in the travel lanes of I-19, specifically threw a number of tires into the travel lanes and smashed a number of glass bottles containing tar and other substances in the travel lanes, then fled the scene. Fortunately, no accidents occurred and the Arizona Department of Public Safety is now actively looking for those individuals. Law enforcement is also keeping an eye on the Neo-Nazis who are in Pinal County-they claimed that they just wanted to "help" the Pinal County Sheriff's Office "enforce" the new law. The Pinal County Sheriff didn't take too well to the idea of armed citizens roaming around "enforcing" the law themselves-especially groups like the Neo-Nazis and Minutemen. That's a guaranteed recipe for trouble.
Thursday afternoon was also interesting as there were protests going on in both Phoenix and Tucson. Here, the major intersection at West Congress Street and Granada Avenue was obstructed from about 4PM to 6PM due to the large protest in front of the State Building and United States District Courthouse. I had to make a slight detour on my homeward commute-no big hassle actually. We only had a small number of arrests (13) and the news reporters were quite surprised that the crowd was very orderly for two angry mobs on opposite sides of the issue.
Friday saw Sheriff Joe making an immigration sweep up in Phoenix-after arresting the demonstrators who were obstructing the sallyport of the Maricopa County Jail. Down here, it was business as usual for the Pima County Sheriff's Office. The difference between Sheriff Dupnik and Sheriff Arpaio is that Dupnik is just as effective at enforcing the laws, but he's a pretty quiet person. He does not crave attention and goes on about the county's business here while Sheriff Arpaio grandstands and polarizes the communities in Maricopa County.
Folks have been saying that Arizona's suffered no real economic harm, but some of the information that is now coming out will show otherwise. The Convention and Tourism folks are saying that the state has now lost 40 major conventions and trade shows-many of which will not come back. Now that the lid's blown off the pot, who knows. All this is doing is showing our state in a very negative light.
My solution? Get all of the career politicians out-all of them. Then replace them with a group of educated professionals who are rational people and start fresh. At the least, we need to get a Democratic majority in the legislature to get things back under control. Janet's departure to Washington removed the only real check we had on the clowns in the Republican legislature. Now they've run amok and made a total mess of things.
Thursday morning, some individuals took it upon themselves to make their opinions known by dumping tires and broken glass into the travel lanes of Interstate 19-just south of Tucson. Eyewitness reports were that approximately 12 individuals traveling in three or four SUVs stopped in the travel lanes of I-19, specifically threw a number of tires into the travel lanes and smashed a number of glass bottles containing tar and other substances in the travel lanes, then fled the scene. Fortunately, no accidents occurred and the Arizona Department of Public Safety is now actively looking for those individuals. Law enforcement is also keeping an eye on the Neo-Nazis who are in Pinal County-they claimed that they just wanted to "help" the Pinal County Sheriff's Office "enforce" the new law. The Pinal County Sheriff didn't take too well to the idea of armed citizens roaming around "enforcing" the law themselves-especially groups like the Neo-Nazis and Minutemen. That's a guaranteed recipe for trouble.
Thursday afternoon was also interesting as there were protests going on in both Phoenix and Tucson. Here, the major intersection at West Congress Street and Granada Avenue was obstructed from about 4PM to 6PM due to the large protest in front of the State Building and United States District Courthouse. I had to make a slight detour on my homeward commute-no big hassle actually. We only had a small number of arrests (13) and the news reporters were quite surprised that the crowd was very orderly for two angry mobs on opposite sides of the issue.
Friday saw Sheriff Joe making an immigration sweep up in Phoenix-after arresting the demonstrators who were obstructing the sallyport of the Maricopa County Jail. Down here, it was business as usual for the Pima County Sheriff's Office. The difference between Sheriff Dupnik and Sheriff Arpaio is that Dupnik is just as effective at enforcing the laws, but he's a pretty quiet person. He does not crave attention and goes on about the county's business here while Sheriff Arpaio grandstands and polarizes the communities in Maricopa County.
Folks have been saying that Arizona's suffered no real economic harm, but some of the information that is now coming out will show otherwise. The Convention and Tourism folks are saying that the state has now lost 40 major conventions and trade shows-many of which will not come back. Now that the lid's blown off the pot, who knows. All this is doing is showing our state in a very negative light.
My solution? Get all of the career politicians out-all of them. Then replace them with a group of educated professionals who are rational people and start fresh. At the least, we need to get a Democratic majority in the legislature to get things back under control. Janet's departure to Washington removed the only real check we had on the clowns in the Republican legislature. Now they've run amok and made a total mess of things.