THE BORDER REPORT
I've been asked by several people why I didn't cover any of the May Day marches in either Tucson or Phoenix today. My answer is, what's the damned point?
The Arizona Daily Star reports 7,000 marching in Tucson today. The
Arizona Republic has this gem: "Anger over Immigration Laws Drives U.S. Rallies," saying 50,000 marched in Los Angeles (did noone march in Phoenix, the Republic's home turf?). On a desmádre-istic sidenote, Shakira met with the mayor and chief of police of Phoenix and why the hell the powerhouses of the sixth largest city in the U.S. made time to meet with a singer on a last minute visit is something only the most degraded part of my imagination will contemplate. I'm surprised the ICE SAC for Arizona didn't try to get in on this.
Where were these "activists" and marchers a month ago when 1070 was still being considered in the Arizona legislature? They march against a bill that has already been signed into law when they should have been actively opposing the bill's signing as far back as the beginning of the year when it's finer points were being debated.
There will be those who would say it's the media's fault for not bringing attention to the bill; I say nonsense. The media, including the Star, the Republic, The AP, the Phoenix New Times, (they covered its pending arrival exhaustively), the East Valley Tribune, and even bloggers have been writing about this bill for months. The goddamned thing has been floating around since at least January when a Senate research committee picked it up. Hell, it was on television.
No, I suspect what happened was good old-fashioned voter apathy. This other
story caught my eye earlier this past week: Five states, Texas, Arizona, Florida, California and New York, (or, about 20 percent of all of us) are now in danger of losing Congressional seats because not enough residents bothered to fill out their Census forms.
People aren't paying attention, they're not watching what's going on around them; even in this age of social media, Twitter, blogs, and 24 hour news everywhere you turn, people are not paying attention.
Then, after the fact, when it is all said and done, when the only way to change 1070 is in the courtroom, everybody hits the streets in outrage and protest; screaming that Gov. Jan Brewer is a Nazi and blah blah blah. I'm no fan of 1070 for my own reasons, most having to do with the threats against the Fourth Amendment, but the governor is not a Nazi. She moved completely in the open; so did the Senate, so did Russell Pearce who'd loudly clamored for his bill for months, so did the House. They weren't paying attention.
So no, I'm not going to cover this feel-good irrelevance of a post-situation street festival.
Pon Atencíon. There are powerful people out there trying to screw you; then you hold a march and feel you've accomplished something. That's embarrassing and with self-indulgent behavior like that, you deserve whatever they throw at you. Don't complain now.
