Lost amidst the picky, petty concerns about Arizona trashing the Constitution, setting up a police state and sending a signal to the world that the Statue of Liberty has developed sclerosis of the intellect is the sneaky feeling that this is what the American people really want.
A majority of our citizens, according to numerous polls, approve of stopping people who look like illegal aliens (read: Mexican) as well as those who look like terrorists (read: Arabs). Maybe it's time to look at expanding, rather than contracting, this Arizonian view of democracy.
To start with, it's clear that establishing Mexicans and Arabs as the only two nationalities subject to search is nothing less than discriminatory. How about Italians? Everyone knows the Mafia hails from Sicily and who wants loads of mafiosi roaming the streets of Phoenix? The answer is to include anyone with swarthy skin whose breath smells even vaguely of garlic or olive oil. We might also get some Greeks in the haul who have come to the United States in order to escape the fiscal catastrophe caused by overspending and tax evasion.
Speaking of tax evasion, officials in Florida and elsewhere might also consider stopping and searching any yacht that costs over a million dollars and has a Cayman Islands flag on the stern instead of a U.S. ensign. These people are thumbing their noses at our country by allowing the rest of us to pay for their lifestyle while they duck responsibility as well as taxes and agree to hire no Americans as crew. If we can stop and search a Mexican illegal worker who does pay his share, we can certainly so the same for the legal people who don't.
The Irish are another group who deserve scrutiny. Remember all those nasty terrorists in Northern Ireland? How can you tell one of those from a hard-working citizen of Dublin who happens to be visiting our shores? And let's not forget the Japanese, some of whom probably are the descendants of the people who attacked Pearl Harbor. And while we're stopping Orientals, don't forget Koreans who might be northerners or anyone Chinese. Don't forget almost two billion of them have been exposed to communist propaganda. Thais are tearing Bankok apart and they might do the same here. Stop 'em. Russians are a no-brainer. Germans could still be secret followers of fascism. We've had cases of Israelis stealing U.S. secrets, so let's stop Jews, too. We already do a good job with African-Americans - it's called Driving While Black. How about Driving While Canadian?
It's easy to see that Arizona isn't going far enough. I'd favor passing laws that would make it illegal for anybody who steals the life pensions of working people to live within the city limits. Hedge fund managers, stock traders and bank CEOs would have to produce documents proving they didn't knowingly shaft the people who trusted them with their money before being allowed to participate in the life of the community. Let's treat everybody the same way they treat us. That goes for oil company bigwigs, pharmaceutical manufacturers, insurance company executives and anybody else who thinks America means taking anything good and shaking it until money comes out. Make them prove they're the kind of people the country wants.
Just like Arizona's doing........