ALABAMA SHAME

If one was going to publish a blog and had a shoulder that limited typing I an easy out would be I to copy another's work. Even with a speech transcriber program it is difficult to write a complete column since the program often has its own interpretation of what is being dictated and corrections are needed. But that is another problem and another day’s column I.(sorry about the dictation typos I missed, plus other  corrections of bad english)

 I was unable to attend Monday night's Council meeting and I am waiting for viewing the discussion on the local before commenting on my reaction to the discussions that occurred

 However I was most disturbed reading in Tuesday's New York Times the following editorial and first page news, which I have excerpted and reproduce for all to read.

 The problem is not a local Alabama one, but  rather one of prejudice and bigotry which in this  particular case is aimed at Hispanics who seek a better way of life in the United States. Those that enter illegally it is true are violating the law. However, they are discriminated against by laws that are antiquated and originated in favor immigration from certain European countries

 The various states and those that advocate these laws are trying legally to re-create the KKK. The unfortunate part is that all have forgotten that every one of us living in this country is a descendent of if not a recent immigrant.

 It might become easy to progress to the next step by making everyone either wear or carry some marker of religious affiliation. Shades of Nazi Germany!

 Please read at least one of the best editorials the recent history of the Times.

“Alabama’s Shame

Only about 3.5 percent of Alabama’s popula­tion is foreign-born, according to the Census Bureau. Undocumented immigrants made up roughly 4.2 percent of its work force in 2010, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. But the drafters of Alabama’s harsh immigration law wanted to turn their state into the country’s most hostile territory for illegal immigrants. They are succeeding, as many of Alabama’s most vulnerable residents can attest.

The law went into effect over the weekend, after being largely upheld by a federal district judge. Volunteers on an immigrant-rights group’s hot line said that since then they have received more than 1,000 calls from pregnant women afraid to go to the hospital, crime victims afraid to go to the police and parents afraid to send their children to school.

School superintendents and principals across the state confirm that attendance of Hispanic children has dropped noticeably since the word went out that school officials are now required to check the immigration status of newly enrolled students and their parents.

That rule is part of the law’s sweeping at­tempt to curtail the rights and complicate the lives of people without papers, making them unable to enter contracts, find jobs, rent homes or access government services.

The education crackdown is particularly senseless and unconstitutional. In 1982, the Supreme Court found that all children living in the United States have the right to a public education, whatever their immigration sta­tus. The justices’ reasoning was shaped not by compassion but practicality: it does the country no good to perpetuate an uneducated underclass.

Officials in Alabama insisted that nothing in the new law is intended to deny children an education. School districts, they noted, are supposed to collect only numbers of children without papers, not names.

“I don’t know where the misinformation’s coming from,” Alabama’s interim state school superintendent, Larry Craven, told NPR. “If you have difficulty understanding the lan­guage anyway, then who knows what they’re being told?” With comments like that, it’s not surprising that any of “them” would be fright­ened.

The Obama administration was right to sue to try to stop the Alabama law. It needs to press ahead with its appeal of the ruling and chal­lenge similar laws in Utah, Georgia, Indiana and South Carolina.

President Obama needs to show stronger leadership in defending core American values in the face of the hostility that has overtaken Alabama”

Below are excerpts from the news story.

“After Ruling, Hispanics Flee Alabama Town”

(New York Times ,10/3/2011)

“ALBERTVILLE, Ala. — The vanishing began Wednesday night, the most frightened fami­lies packing up their cars as soon as they heard the news.

They left behind mobile homes, sold fully furnished for a thousand dollars or even less. Or they just closed up and, in a gesture of op­timism, left the keys with a neigh­bor. Dogs were fed one last time and, if no home could be found, simply unleashed.

Two, 5, 10 years of living here, and then gone in a matter of days, to Tennessee, Illinois, Oregon, Florida, Arkansas, Mexico — who knows? Anywhere but Alabama.”*****************

“The exodus of Hispanic immi­grants began just hours after a federal judge in Birmingham up­held most provisions of the state’s far-reaching immigration enforce­ment law.”*****************

“Only about 3.5 percent of Alabama’s popula­tion is foreign-born, according to the Census Bureau. Undocumented immigrants made up roughly 4.2 percent of its work force in 2010, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. But the drafters of Alabama’s harsh immigration law wanted to turn their state into the country’s most hostile territory for illegal immigrants. They are succeeding, as many of Alabama’s most vulnerable residents can attest.”***********************

“The Obama administration was right to sue to try to stop the Alabama law. It needs to press ahead with its appeal of the ruling and chal­lenge similar laws in Utah, Georgia, Indiana and South Carolina.

President Obama needs to show stronger leadership in defending core American values in the face of the hostility that has overtaken Alabama and so many other states. He can start by scrapping the Secure Communities program, which encourages local immigration dragnets and reinforces the false notion that most undocumented immigrants pose a threat to this country’s security.

As for Alabama, one has to wonder at such counterproductive cruelty. Do Alabamans want children too frightened to go to school? Or pregnant women too frightened to seek care?