The first time I heard the Chuck Berry song "Back in the USA," Linda Ronstadt was singing it. "Well I'm so glad to be livin' in the USA" where hamburgers sizzle on the grill all day and the jukebox is jumping. What a country. Except one of those united states has just passed a law that threatens to diminish all those good times. Ms. Ronstadt's home state of Arizona has just passed one of the most draconian measures to restrict immigration in our country's history. The law that requires local and state law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there's reason to suspect they're in the country illegally. "Mexican-Americans are not going to take this lying down," insisted Ronstadt, a Tuscon native.
Linda Ronstadt's heritage might be enough to get her pulled over, but the once and future Queen of Rock probably wouldn't get the hook on looks alone, and that's the problem: The "suspicion" of being illegal is based on appearances. It's not just pop music that's upset, either. Major League Baseball's players' union issued a statement condemning the law. With more than one-quarter of big leaguers on opening-day rosters born outside the fifty states, most of them from Hispanic descent, that only makes sense. Next year's All-Star game is scheduled to be held in Arizona. Half of the major league teams take their spring training in the Grand Canyon state. The Diamondbacks have five of "them" on their active roster. I suppose the GM hopes they aren't making any raids at Chase Field.
Arizona doesn't participate in daylight savings time, either. It took five years of shame and tourist boycotts to get them to approve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. John McCain. Mavericks. Yeesh.
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