As of late I haven’t been able to open
my web-browser without reading a story about people in Arizona acting as nutty
as my grandfather’s pecan tree. Just
yesterday, I read an article about AZ Gov. Jan Brewer signing a law to ban
Planned Parenthood from receiving Title X funds. Because, you know, a great way to reduce
abortions is to take away people’s access to contraception. This news barely cracked the lunacy scale for
this week, what with a straight-up neo-Nazi, who happened to be all BFF with the State Republican leadership, killing his entire family and then himself.
And, then it hit me. I’m actually going to Arizona next
month. Who had this great idea again? Oh, that’s right, we did. Back in 2010, with white supremacist
anti-immigrant legislation set to take effect in Arizona, the UUA General
Assembly met in the civilized city of Minneapolis and debated whether to
boycott Phoenix, which had been picked as the General Assembly site for 2012 by
the GA Planning Committee. The final
decision was not to forfeit the hefty deposit the UUA had given Phoenix and to
go to Phoenix with the understanding that it would be a “Justice GA” and not
business as usual.
It seems we were not the only ones
talking about pulling out of Arizona.
Check out this Forbes Magazine on-line article that might as well be
titled, “Business as Usual Says No More Business as Usual in Arizona.”
“If business leaders in the state can’t find a way to rein in the elected officials, the militias prowling the border, and the out-of-control legislature, Arizona will continue its quick decline, transforming from the business-friendly, libertarian-leaning state of Barry Goldwater into a circus where no sensible entrepreneur would ever dream of locating their business.”
Or, consider this story from the
Southern Poverty Law Center that tells us Arizona has a “reputation as the
epicenter of anti-immigrant hate and as a site of disturbing extremist activity.”
News stories tell us that politics in
Arizona ranges from ultra-conservative at best to domestic terrorist at
worst. Besides JT Ready killing his
entire family, there is last year’s shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle
Giffords, as well as stories like this one about a militant hate group
conspiring to place landmines along the US-Mexico border.
News stories run from the embarrassing
to the idiotic to the surreal.
Embarrassing would be Gov. Jan Brewer literally shaking her finger in
the face of President Obama on an airport tarmac in Arizona last January, and
then, while being interviewed about the uncomfortable exchange, telling
reporters that she “felt a little threatened” by the President. I’m sure she didn’t mean that in a racist
way.
Idiotic would include Arizona’s newest
wave of anti-abortion legislation that included a legal definition that
pregnancy begins two weeks before conception.
And then there is the surreal. That would be America’s most demented lawman,
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, turning the bust of an alleged cockfighting ring into the
set of an action movie, complete with paramilitary equipment and martial arts
movie star Steven Seagal riding in on a tank while the cameras rolled. Apparently, Seagal managed to kill a puppy
during the raid.
This list is by no means
comprehensive. I could easily write a
blog post ten times as long documenting Arizona’s right wing racist, anti-immigrant,
and anti-woman legislation and activity in recent weeks and months.
