Saturday, June 26, 2010

Ripped from the headlines..

zits

lineGuv says most ‘illegal people’ are drug mules”, front page of the Salt Lake Trib today.    According to the article, the Governor of Arizona said:

jan-brewer-arizona-governorI believe today, under the circumstances that we’re facing, that the majority of the illegal trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in,”

Now, I’m not a big fan of illegal immigration, and I truly believe that something needs to be done to get it under control.  But I also hate stereotypic racist rhetoric.  I’ve worked in schools that had large populations of students of illegal immigrants (we don’t ask, but when students trust you they let things slip.)  From my experiences there, I find this comment hard to believe, and most likely simply intended to bolster support for the new law.

Rebuttal from the  KSL TV online news:

TJ“T.J. Bonner, president of the union that represents border agents, said some illegal border-crossers carry drugs but most don't. People with drugs face much stiffer penalties for entering the U.S. illegally, and very few immigrants looking for work want to risk the consequences, Bonner said.”

Whichever way you look at it, I think that the Governor’s comments were inappropriate at best.

lineD.A. wants all fliers that smeared teen“, front page of the Utah section of the same paper.  Ok, this article creeps me out even more than the Arizona Gov.  A 37 year old woman gets in a fight with a 13 year old girl.  The article never mentioned what it was all about, they just reported the 37 year old’s response to what the 13 year old did.

She took the girl’s yearbook picture and ‘photoshopped’ it onto a pornographic picture of a girl having sex with a dog.  Then she made more than 20 copies of it, went to the girl’s school and hung them up in the bathrooms.  She is now facing 1 count of ‘distributing child pornography‘ for each of the 12 fliers the police retrieved.  The more fliers the prosecutors get, the more charges this 37 year old will face.  Each count carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

I spend a lot of my time arguing with teenagers, it’s a part of the job teaching, especially in the first few weeks where they are trying to see how much they will be able to get away with.  I can’t imagine ever even thinking about that kind of retaliation, and as people who work with me know, I’m big into ‘photoshopping’ as they call it. (Personally, I much prefer Macromedia Fireworks).  Frankly, I’m still in shock at the fact that an adult (and I use that term loosely) would ever do something that degenerate.  But, alas, the human race continues to amaze and shock me.

zzz

2 comments:

A Paperback Writer said...

About the lady with the photoshopped bestiality posters-- I wanna know why she was so pissed at the kid. And I guess it's only one step better than that mother a few years back who hired a hit man to take out another girl who was competition for her daughter's spot on the cheerleading squad.

Now, about immigration: honestly, I don't think anything's going to stop it until Mexico can straighten out its own government and the country becomes a better place to live. Really, when people are desperate for a better life, they will cross borders illegally -- and most of them have nothing to do with drugs. Really, how many Canadians try to sneak across our border for a better life? How many French people are trying to sneak into Muslim countries? People who are poor and/or oppressed are willing to risk everything because they have nothing else to lose.
I don't know the answer, but I do try to remind myself when I start thinking that we need to do something about "THEM" that one of my ancestors sneaked into this country illegally as a six-year-old stowaway on a pirate ship. And my great-great-grandfather arrived in arrived at the fort in Salt Lake in September of 1847, having illegally crossed the border into Mexico 2 months after Brigham Young did, for Utah was not a US possession until 1848. That ancestor was escaping what he saw as religious persecution in the US, and he fled illegally to another country. Remembering this helps me keep things in perspective.
I like the article on yahoo about how CA farmers are offering picking jobs to Americans. These are jobs usually filled by seasonal (sometimes legal, sometimes not) workers from Mexico. They're betting not many American citizens will show up to take these jobs because being on welfare is much easier. I know my evil neighbor, who hasn't had a job in the 7 years he's lived here, isn't moving off his fat butt to run down and take one of these jobs that "the Mexicans are taking from the Americans."
Again, I don't know the answer to this problem, but I'm beginning to dislike that Arizona governor more and more. Betcha she hangs out with Chris Buttars.

Max Sartin said...

Whoa, I'd forgotten about Hit-Mom. That was one crazy lady.
I too would like to know what the 13 year old did, just out of curiosity because I don't think it would excuse her response. Maybe if she were 13 instead of 37, and the other teenager did something equally heinous. But I'm still amazed that an adult would even think of doing that.
Illegal immigration is a hard one. My grandfather was a originally a legal immigrant, was deported, snuck back in (from Canada, ironically), and lived here for 60 years illegally. I also firmly believe that the huge majority of illegal immigrants are here working hard, taking jobs that us lazy-ass Americans don't want to do any more anyways. And I agree that it would do a lot more if things got better in Mexico and their citizens didn't need to leave to find a better life. But at the same time, it is illegal and we don't have the power to change things in Mexico.