Show me your papers....

I remember this line in most World War 2 movies where a German Nazi official-usually an SS officer, would confront likely suspects and enemies of the Third Reich. This was a way of smoking out "un-Nazis"-for the most part Jews. The movie "The Great Escape" comes to mind") If your papers were not in order, your life was literally in danger or deportation or physical harm. This situation is what Arizona is going to be like if a bill passes that would allow law enforcement officials to confront suspected illegal aliens. The law would basically legalize racial and ethnic profiling and allow officials to confront, harass, and arrest people suspected of being undocumented and of being the "wrong color". This racist bill is being supported by of all people that "don't call me a maverick" John McCain who for political reasons is going so far to the right that he makes Hammurabi seem like a liberal. The claim by Arizona officials is that the federal government is not doing enough to control our borders. They are not completely wrong on this issue. There are about a half million illegals in Arizona. and obviously something has to be done. There obviously has to be some change in our immegration laws-some sort of amnesty or perhaps not confirring automatically citizenship on children of illegal immegrants.
As the son of Holocaust survivors, I am against the "show me your papers" fascist approach to US immegration policy. Anyone...anyone including several Arizona congressman would be open to being question. (This is like driving while being Black in many places). This is not my America and its not the place my parents came to to start a new life in the US. We don't need our law enforcement officials to became 21st century versions of SS officers.

Too much is never enough...politcally and otherwise..

When I was in high school I came home from school one day with a report card that I was very proud of. I had an 88% average that was better than most of the students in my school. I was a writer on the school paper and a member of two sports teams. When I showed my father my report card he said "why isn't it a 90?" I remmber being hurt,frustrated and thinking "what more could I do". President Obama recently decided to approve offshore drilling as part of US energy policy. This is a decision that those on the left were shocked by and seemed like an act of betrayal and brought memories of Sarah Pallin's almost mocking approach of "drill baby drill".
The president seems to have taken a middle ground regarding limited oil drilling. It seems that the president is making some consessions to the right regarding US energy policy-a very adult like approach of "not all or nothing". The response by House Minority leader John Boehner is that the president hasn't gone far enough and that there should be more expansive drilling including areas in pristine,protected areas of Alaska.
When I read this,I found myself both laughing and filled with a sense of familarity of this situation. It just seems that no matter what the president does, no matter how far he reaches out to the Republican leadership-88%-98% will never be good enough.

suicide by taunting in Massachusetts.

The recent suicide by a young girl in Massachusetts as a result of emotional, physical and verbal taunting is partially caused by the continued coarsening of the culture. In my clinical social work training regarding child abuse or spousal abuse, one of the first lessons I learned is that the calling of a woman by an animal or body part (bitch,cunt,etc) is a precursor to physical abuse. What I have noticed over the last few years is the calling of girls by other girls "a bitch". Look how often you hear this term on television, in movies. The acceptance of this blurs the boundaries of acceptable behavior.(The blurring is made worse by the technology that is so readily available and so intrusive and minimizes as well the sense of personal responsibility for behaviors. The attempts to keep connected with others actually has the opposite effect. Having this behavior shown so readily reduces the impact and its importance. For boys, its a mixed message: if girls can do it, so can I. Look at all the TV shows where meanness and abusive behavior is enabled by having it seen as entertainment. (Its like an electronic version of being in the lion's den or the gladiators) instead of thumbs up or down you get electronically voted out of a house for horrible behaviors or high television ratings.
The blurring of boundaries in any situation has an emotional price. We see this politically with the encouragement of violence by politicians. Joe Wilson became famous for "you lie". The problem with the use of taunting words as was the case with the most recent suicide story and others is that words do hurt and often kill. The question for me is : where were the adult to say "this is not acceptable. There are consequences for verbally abusive behavior. It will be interesting to see how accountable not just the taunters are but school official and the parents of the taunters.