An appeal from Arizona

Things are truly the worst here in Arizona. I was born and raised in this beautiful state. It’s been a challenge but it’s not been insane – til now.

Here in Tucson, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., had to close his offices yesterday to protect his staff from serious death threats. But he was out this morning in front of an audience of hundreds, calling for optimism in this struggle for basic human rights and decency that includes all of us in Arizona and the USA against the country’s most evil anti-immigrant, racist, and unconstitutional bill (SB 1070). We are tired of being the laughing stock of the U.S., we are tired of being threatened, we are more than tired, WE ARE REALLY PISSED OFF. And we want the rest of you to also be pissed off. One reason our legislature and governor think they can get away with this crap is that no one else in the country is paying attention or cares.

So we can use some loud voices in support of the national economic boycott of Arizona called by Raul Grijalva. Already the American Immigration Lawyers Association has dropped plans to hold their convention here. If you know of any other organizations who are planning events here, if you know people who are planning vacations (the Grand Canyon is fabulous but stay away until it is safe to come), moving a business, buying anything from us (especially citrus and other agricultural items), tell them to stop. We are fighting against our own apartheid, our own flirtation with ethnic cleansing.

Economic sanctions are appropriate. We listened when our brothers and sisters in South Africa called on the people of the world for economic sanctions because they knew that theirs was a greater goal; a little suffering and struggle would yield justice and freedom. We sustained an economic boycott here in Arizona when an earlier racist governor of the state of Arizona cancelled our Martin Luther King Day; we won that struggle when the folks organizing the Super Bowl said they would never hold an event here in Arizona until there was a reversal. And we can win again.

We need to know you have our back. We have more crazies that we deserve in Arizona at the moment. We need your support and we need an organized call from every state for real, honest, humane, and just Immigration Reform.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dreamactivistorg/ / CC BY 2.0