IN THE MIDST OF THE ARIZONA IMMIGRATION -CON-TROV-S-C-..........

The notoriously new Arizona State Immigration Law, was passed, signed, and went into effect, all since my December, 4 month Evaluation visit, to the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. As the controversy swirls, I have been very cognizant on this visit of the great majority of Latino servers there are working at the airport, hotel, restaurants, stores, and the hospital. Most of them are natives of the United States or legal aliens, yet this new and questionable law is attempting to all but equate them with illegal immigrants, in preception, if not reality. That is why I believe Federal Court Judge Susan Bolton did the right thing two weeks ago before the law took effect, to nullify some of it's most egregious elements. Why should a sitting Govvernor, who has not been elected to that office and is running for election to it this year, be allowed to use a federal law responsibility like immigration at the state level, to placate her potential supporters and drive a wedge between the citizenry of Arizona ? Tonight I had dinner at a restaurant, the Tilted Kilt, adjacent to my hotel. The largely Latino serving staff were all hard at work doing their jobs and serving all customers politely and courteously. At the table nearest me upon my arrival there was a totally Caucasian group of three males and one female, there much before me, who spent the next three quarters of an hour after I was seated, speaking in loud voices, not just about their own pursuits or shared experiences, but slicing and dicing up their co-workers, and minorities, which made me think as they drank another pint or two each of their favorite beer, Is this what happens when people do not have a fulfilling enough life themselves, that they become unfairly critical and slanderous of others, especially people of color that are different from them ? And does that in turn fuel the fires of prejudice, racism, and discrimination ,that results in a situation like an immigration law run amok, or being used as a tool for self-interest ? The Immigration laws and the Border security are essential issues needing to be addressed and resolved. But they cannot be allowed to become a mask for other agendas that are far from where our attitudes should be as Americans.......... In The American Spirit Of Fairness, And Justice, Fr. Troy