Monday, August 29, 2011

Where is Alabama's basic humanity?

Today both my husband and my minister sent me this link to this New York Times editorial about life in the state of Alabama.  Racism is thriving in its government halls and spilling out to terrorize the population.  Have we Americans learned nothing from the Civil Rights movement?

In answer to the question posed in the title, those four clergymen who filed the lawsuit are standing up for what America is supposed to be.  The clergymen offer an alternative to the Gestapo-like existence scheduled for institution on September 1st.  Let's hope that decent people do not fail to heed the cry for compassion and justice.

Have the "good" Christians in the Alabama legislature ever even heard mention of the Golden Rule?  (I point out that many major religions have an ideal expressed much like the Golden Rule; I am only referring to Christianity because of the legislators self-proclaimed identity.)  Nearly 100 per cent of the people who want to come here because their children cry from hunger cannot even get visas.  They want food, education, and security for their children, just as I do.

This arrogant pastor in the Alabama Senate apparently claims to be on dialoguing terms with God.  EXCUSE ME!  If God exists, I cannot believe that He would be telling the Alabama legislature to be cruel and unforgiving to those Alabamans who have been forced to live in the shadows.

Most immigrants are not terrorists.  Many seek a better life just like those of us whose ancestors immigrated before unfair visa regulations went into effect.  It does not comfort me to realize that since the 9/11 terrorists were in America legally, Alabama's new law would embrace them.

Let me tell you about Kansas.  The Kansas Secretary of State and not Attorney General Kris Kobach  focuses on undocumented immigrants instead of the duties of his public office, and, make no mistake.  (I absolutely, positively refuse to refer to people as "illegal.")  Kris Kobach is dangerous because he is highly intelligent.  The atmosphere is Kansas has already changed for the worse.

My son-in-law, who happens to a legal permanent U.S. resident who was born in Mexico, was recently questioned by police because he made the grievous error of trying to buy a soda after he filled his truck with gasoline at Quik Trip.  As SIL entered the store, a police officer stopped him and demanded to see his papers.  Then the officer contacted her department to check out said papers while keeping SIL from his daily routine of husband, father, college student, part-time worker at Chipotle, and clown extraordinaire.  (Doesn't that description make SIL sound evil?)  SIL was told that it was just a mistake when his green card checked out.

However, all of us who know SIL believe the true reason he was stopped was because he looks like a dark-skinned Hispanic (which he is).  (I do not want to get into a rant today about the discrimination SIL has been subjected to because of his phenotype.  I think the salient factor about SIL is that I, unlike stereotypical mothers-in-law, love him like a son.  Our family was fortunate in our daughter's choice.)  Does SIL's being questioned remind anyone of Hitler's SS checking papers?  Doesn't the Overland Park Police Department have dangerous crime to deal with?  Why harass a law-abiding hard-working thirsty man?

My daughter is and I am still furious about the incident.  Does this mentality of hate mean that SIL in going to spend a big chunk of his life proving his legal residency?  And, isn't it a violation of SIL's basic civil rights to be stopped while entering a store?  I am ashamed that self-deluded hypocrisy is thriving in my native country.

This is the world the Alabama lawmakers have just thrust upon their state.  Our country's broken immigration system can only be solved by love and compassion.  Any other "solution" is just wrong.

Interested readers may want to visit the Standing on the Side of Love and American Civil Liberties Union websites.

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