Smear, not Arizona, is “wrong”.

In a letter of June 10th, a writer identifies himself as “Hispanic, Latino, Mexican-American” or whatever we’d like. Since he then says he is a “seventh generation American”, why does he not just say, “I am an American”, like everyone else? I am proud of my ancestry, but I do not go around saying I am an “English-German-Irish-American”, and most people I know are just “American”. Perhaps that is the source of his self-imposed trouble: American seems like an afterthought.

I’m glad he’s a “beautiful…brown”, but brown, black, yellow white or polka-dotted doesn’t matter to most of us. I’m sorry he’s found some bigots; jerks and heroes come in all colors. But Hispanic citizen’s rights are not in danger, and illegal aliens (of any background) have no more rights than any burglar or trespasser.

It looks like the author’s father and grandfather fought alongside mine, and he fought alongside my older brothers. Patriots. Americans. Why does he think he would need to “prove my citizenship if I travel to Arizona”? Certainly nothing actually in SB1070, because it requires that cops have some other reason to contact him (he’d have to get a ticket or get himself arrested) and prohibits using appearance (racial or otherwise) in the investigation of citizenship. Even then, he’d just show his valid driver’s license and the citizenship investigation would be over, just like the last guy that got a ticket (Swedish or Korean or whatever).

Arizona’s law actually provides more protections for citizens and immigrants (legal and illegal) than the Constitution or federal law and procedure do. That’s what the author and his fathers fought for. Maybe his Congressman and mine, Joe Baca, confused him about the law. Maybe he was deceived by Baca’s claims that it’s “anti-immigrant” or “racially motivated” rather than just protecting Americans from drugs, gangs, kidnappings, murders and billions of taxpayer dollars wasted on illegals every year. The “message” Baca sends is a boycott of working folks in a state with a fair and necessary law.

So the fact is, the author doesn’t have to worry about that stuff in Arizona, or the twenty states that are already following their lead. Only illegal aliens have anything to worry about. They created a bad situation for their families. The lawful Italians, Chinese and others that he mentions assimilated in turn. Before JFK, no one thought there would ever be a Catholic President, and now we have one who’s half black.

Americans know that racism, like lying, is wrong.