Jeff's Commentary - 5/3 - The Immigration Law in AZ

The story of the week in Arizona and around the U.S. has been the new immigration law signed by the Governor last Friday. While I am not happy about the law and its complicated ramifications, I am tired of the new baggage from around the country that arrives via the media daily.
First the fine folks of San Francisco throw in their ten cents worth. Ban travel to Arizona.
Then entertainers like Shakira come to town and you’d think the Pope was speaking. Didn’t realize she was such a policy wank.
Protesters lined up at Wrigley Field last weekend to boycott the Diamondbacks. I lived many years in Chicago and the racial issues in that city are enormous. And they can’t fix a pot hole to save themselves.
Here’s the reality. Arizona is a mess. The tax base has been shredded by the recession, the housing market continues to implode and the unemployment rate still hovers around 9.6%. Immigration issues and the substantial costs with the lack of any policy are a part of all of those problems.
We have the nation’s number one status in kidnapping and immigration exploitation in the country.
Yes, we have a sheriff who goes out and rounds up simple working people like maintenance crews and gardeners but avoids the tough stuff like attacking the drug issues, human smuggling and gang growth that plague the Hispanic and other neighborhoods. No headlines in that.
Has anyone from San Francisco or Shakira been in one of Arizona’s emergency room’s on a Friday or Saturday night with a true injury? The wards are full of immigrants who have no health care but seek service. Has Shakira ever been to a over crowded class room in the inner city to realize there has to be a plan established to figure out how to first accommodate those that want to learn and then how to pay for it?
For what its worth, Shakira is from Columbia. That country is responsible for more pain and suffering around the globe due to the excessive cocaine market that comes directly out of their back yard. I don’t see Shakira down there screaming of the horrors of that business and the daily murders that take place when you get in way. You know why? The Columbian drug lords would probably kill her if she did. So she postures in Arizona like some saint from heaven above. Please fix your own homeland problems before looking into ours.
The Diamondbacks are excellent corporate citizens and have done more with inner city charities and fund drives than most professional sports teams across the country.
For anyone from California to even talk about other state issues, they need look no further than the incompetence of leadership in their own state. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Earthquakes won’t be needed to push them into the ocean. Their lack of any vision in handling their own budget and immigration law is enough to bankrupt them for years.
The new immigration law in Arizona is a work in progress. It will be reworked and redefined as we move forward. The debate is good. It’s a joke that the federal government has avoided this issue year in and out, Republican and Democratic administrations. It’s a tough battle with no winners. But something has to be addressed.
And at least Arizona has stepped out and has tried to start the debate. The courts are a good play to challenge any constitutional issues. That’s why we have “a system”. The voters here can decide in the 2010 and 2012 elections if they like the direction of our current leaders. If not, get rid of them and change the agenda.
But for today, I’m sick of California, Shakira and the protesters in Chicago.
As my father used to say when the kids in our family went over the line in importance…”who died and made you boss?”

Jeff