Offensensitivity

Have you ever taken the time to notice how offended most of the left is at any given time? I find it astounding how almost the entire population of leftists can spend their whole day, day in - day out, offended by so many things. Is their a list of things to be offended by that I just don't have access to? The many disparate groups that make up liberal America are so fractured at times that their complaints seem to overlap. I've often wondered what joy must be available to so many people who are so angry all the time. Maybe though, they're not really angry at all. Maybe it's just a way to feel like they're making a difference in this miserable world we live in. A world filled with injustice, inequality and "downright meanness" to quote Michele Obama.

For months the anger was directed at tea party protesters. Now this was a cause you could get behind - denigrating thousands of mostly peaceful, mostly polite people upset with their government and using a public space for redress of their grievances. Who wouldn't be offended by that? A bunch of white men complaining about a black president. It's just so sad that most of them don't know how racist they are. To a liberal, racism is just as bad today as it was during the 60's with no hope for any true racial healing except through the compassionate policies of the government. Dennis Miller once said, "You people who want the government to "fix" your life remember this--Government can't even pave f*cking roads in a timely fashion." True enough.

The latest object of liberal scorn is - the entire state of Arizona. It seems the Governor signed a law making racism the official state pastime. Well, not really but that's what most of the "lead with your heart not your brain" left would have you believe. What's really going on is a state has finally tired of waiting for the federal government to fulfill it's most important role - protecting the citizenry. Precious little reality has been exposed during the heated cries of civil rights violations and racism. It seems you can't have a discussion about curbing illegal immigration without some liberal namby pamby calling you a racist. It's just not possible in these days of political correctness and a rising tide of "social justice".

Now, before I continue, let me state that I have a vested interest in matters concerning immigration. My wife is Canadian so any outcome involving amnesty or any such thing has a direct effect on my life. We've followed the rules as best we can in search of her legal immigrant status. There is nothing so tedious, so infuriating as trying to navigate the choppy, confusing waters of legal immigration. At it's best it's an exercise in futility and at it's worst it's enough to make you want to claw your own eyes out with a spoon. Legal immigration is not an easy process at all which is why so many people choose to simply skip across the border and bypass it completely. There's a well defined process with rules and laws that you have to follow or risk losing your legal status.

I don't believe amnesty is a viable option to curtailing illegal immigration. How does granting citizenship to people who have broken the law prevent future abuses of the system? What kind of message does that send to the millions more who'd like to come in the US? The message it sends is that you can come over illegally and the Americans are so lazy they won't even bother to look for you and don't care if you never leave. (Insert racist label here)

This is the point where you liberals start calling me a racist who just hates people with brown skin. One problem with that label though...I have brown skin. Next insult please. I'm of Italian descent and my skin color has always been a bit darker than most. I grew up in Texas where if you're not white or black, you're Mexican. Notice I didn't say Hispanic there. No one ever asked if I was Hispanic when I was growing up, they asked if I spoke Spanish. Notes from school were sent home in Spanish. Every restaurant I worked at, I started washing dishes because having me out front might have looked bad.

Most people never even bothered to ask what nationality I was. They just made broad assumptions based on my skin color. I know a thing or two about racism too. I've been called "coconut" - brown on the outside, white on the inside, by both sides of the racial spectrum. That is until I started explaining that Italian was different than Mexican. It still happens to this day. I get stupid white people asking me if I speak English at least once a week. I get Hispanics looking for a friendly ally speaking to me in Spanish as if I have a big "I'm Mexican" sign on my back. The most memorable example happened in downtown Atlanta.

I was repairing a door at the Swissotel one sunny afternoon. I was in the parking garage on a ladder when a well dressed woman approached me carrying her bags. Exasperated at having to carry her own luggage, she walked up behind me and asked in a very snooty voice,

"Please tell me you speak English, I need a valet. These bags are killing me."

Instantly fired up, I shot back, in my best Harvard Professor voice,

"Why, yes. I do speak English. I also speak German, Latin and a smattering of Italian."

I turned away from her and continued my work, ignoring the disgusted snuffle she made.

Is that racism? Maybe not but it certainly smacked of bigotry. She made a broad assumption that,
a) I didn't speak English.
b) I must be a member of the staff. and
c) My skin color told her that I was a subordinate, there for her use.

Stupid white people indeed.

So all you lily white liberal do-gooders, you have no clue what real racism is. Racism to you is a rallying cry that you use to quell honest discussion and debate. Racism to you is a poster, a bumper sticker...a sound bite on the news.

Let's get back to Arizona for a few final minutes and look more closely at why they made the decision they did regarding illegal immigration.

Did you know that Arizona has the second highest incidence of kidnapping ...in the entire world? Ranchers are forced to let the drug cartels use their land on the border to cross or risk having their families or themselves killed. The same is true in Texas.
70% of Arizonans favor their new immigration law. That includes 30% Hispanic residents. There are upwards of 400,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona that tax the healthcare system, the ability for citizens to get jobs in this tough economy and the ability for law enforcement to hold down the damage from the drug trade.

Now we have weepy, white liberals in New York and DC telling Arizona that they don't have the right to protect their own borders. Obama called the law "misguided" and Al Sharpton is currently ramping up to march in Arizona. Big problem for Al is that when polled, 60%-70% of African Americans favor stricter immigration enforcement. Nasty statistic that eh? An Arizona rancher was killed recently by Mexican drug cartel members as an example of what happens to those who don't "play along". Dozens of law enforcement officers have been killed by the same cartels who don't want their business infringed upon. In the light of no federal help, what else was the state supposed to do? Continue allowing their citizens and police to be murdered so as not to upset the delicate balance of needing the Hispanic vote versus protecting the citizenry?
This is political gamesmanship at it's very lowest. Obama is using this issue as a means to an end. He cares not a whit about the plight of illegals, he cares about getting his party elected. That he even symbolically places the needs of those who have broken the law over the needs of law abiding citizens speaks volumes about what's really important to him.

I say Arizona has a right to protect it's citizens. Owing to the fact that I don't live there means my opinion doesn't really amount to a hill of beans on the grand scheme of things. Just as Obama's opinion means absolutely nothing in the final analysis.

All the rest of you do gooders out there,

"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."