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The Daily Dose/May 4, 2010
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around the Human Experience...
LEADING OFF: Arizona, which once lost the Super Bowl because they refused to have a Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is back in the racial spotlight, recently passing a law that criminalizes being a legal alien in Arizona without carrying papers saying your okay to be in this country. It also requires law enforcement officers to attempt to determine someone's immigration status if there is a reasonable suspicion they might be illegal.
On the one hand, with an estimated 460,000 of them, Arizona's illegal immigrant problem is enormous and it is difficult to blame for them grabbing the bull by the horns and trying to do something.
OTOH: Boy, even though the law was modified to prohibited enforcement based on race, color or national origin, it is difficult to believe that won't happen, though we are not getting too worked up over the prospect of actual illegal aliens getting pestered. They're illegal and are not entitled to much consideration under the law.
An Open Invitation: Honestly, we're not racist here at the Writer's Shack. You want to come to the US? Fine, do so legally. And welcome aboard. While this country has a lot to answer for, being a nation of immigrants isn't one of them. Anyone who believes this country has not achieved what it has because we are a nation of immigrants has either forgotten the lessons they learned in history class or never learned them in the first place.
Down To Business: What we do see is problems being caused for real, live US citizens, and others legally in this country.
This is problematic because it is not completely unreasonable to presume there are plenty of authentic US citizens in Arizona who might well give the impression they are illegal.
Por Ejemplo: Consider a US citizen of Mexican descent who has chosen to earn his living as a laborer. Let's also say that to transport himself to and from the jobsite he chooses to avail himself of one of the fine public transit options we're sure the various cities in Arizona offer their residents. So he might not be in possession of a driver license or any other form of valid, government issued identification.
De Materia Seca, Tecnica: And why should he be? He is a citizen of the United States and the United States is not yet a country that issues - and requires its citizens to carry - a national ID card. As a US citizen our laborer of Mexican descent is no more obliged to walk around carrying identity papers than he is obligated to own a dog.
But let's say our subject gets off his bus and cuts across a street without using a crosswalk. Jaywalking is a disgusting, vile crime, a blight on our inner cities, and let's say a deputized officer of the law observes this egregious violation of Arizona state law and stops our subject.
The first thing the officer is going to ask is if he has any ID. Our subject is going to say no. The officer, mindful of the law, and not completely unreasonably, might well suspect our laborer - sweaty and dirty after a days work - might be illegal, despite the fact our laborer has as much right to be in this country as his interviewing officer does.
So he asks our subject if he's legal to be in the US and our subject says of course, I'm a citizen.
The cop is thinking yeah, right. This guy's filthy, he's as Mexican as a siesta and he doesn't have ID. He's illegal. Under this law, it would be appropriate for the officer to take this guy in until he can prove his civil status.
Get Your Official Writer's Shack Policy Right Here: This is wrong. We are on record as (still) believing the purpose of our government is provide for the liberty of its citizens and taking a citizen into custody merely because he can't prove his citizenship status is not providing for his liberty.
DatoCuioso: The law also criminalizes gathering in Home Depot parking lots and mobbing every pickup truck that comes in to look for work. We're actually okay with that. It would be nice to go to Home Depot and get a hose or a spray bottle without being pestered about whether or not we needed help with it.
PLAY BALL: The first professional baseball league, the National Association, plays its first game on this date in 1871 in Ft. Wayne, Indiana as the Ft. Wayne Kekiongas defeated the Cleveland Forest Citys 2-0. Cleveland catcher Deacon White, who would later play 14 years in the National League, had the NA"s first hit, first extra-base hit, a double.
Deacon Giveth, Deacon Taketh Away: History also records that White hit into the first double play.
We Wondered, Too: Kekionga was the name of an Indian settlement where Ft. Wayne now stands.
Bottom Line: The paid attendance for the game is listed at 200.
Bottom Line II: Despite the fact the National Association was the highest caliber of play, neither major league baseball or the Baseball Hall of Fame recognizes it as a major league for a variety of reasons, including erratic scheduling.
Brave New World: A bit more than six months after arranging for Panama's liberation from Colombia, the United States begins construction of the Panama Canal on this date in 1904.
History Lesson: The US and Colombia had agreed on a treaty for the US to build a canal in what was then Colombian territory, but the pesky Colombian Senate declined to approve it, so the US arranged for some freedom lovers in Panama to declare independence then impeded Colombian efforts to prevent this.
Oh Yeah: The US took over an earlier, failed French effort to build a canal. The Panama Canal would open in 1914, a couple of yeas ahead of schedule.
Thought For The Day: The first goal need not be the final one, for a sailing ship sails first by one wind, then another. - Louis L'Amour, The Walking Drum
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Robert R. Livingstone, the Chancellor of New York, administered the oath of office to George Washington at his first presidential inaugural on April 30, 1789.
Today's Stumper: What is the only National Association team that has been in existence continuously since the 1871 season? - Answer next time!
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