The War on "Hispanics"

Read the following letter to the editor published in today's Telegraph and then tell me whether the writer would've dared written this letter and specified that the drivers were, say, 'black' or any other ethnicity other than "Hispanic." The assumptions the writer maked based only on her perception that the drivers "appeared to be Hispanic" are pretty startling:

Don't know the law?
About a month ago as I was coming out of Kroger at Tom Hill pushing my groceries across the crosswalk. A man who appeared to be Hispanic kept coming and I had to stop for him. He did not seem to know that I had the right of way. This week as I was going into the Kroger at Presidential Parkway and a man who looked Hispanic did not yield as I was going across the crosswalk and would have struck me if I had not stopped. He was going too fast and looked at me as if I were crazy. I wonder how these men got driver's licenses, or ever worse, do they even have licenses? If they can't read English or know the road signs they shouldn't be driving.

Carolyn Meadows
Macon

There's a fine line, often crossed, between "securing our borders" and waging a "War on Hispanics." The heated rhetoric, often heavy on emotion and light on facts, has made bias against "Hispanics," here legally or not, acceptable. Sometimes, the Telegraph would do folks a favor if they didn't publish their letters.

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Another Embarrassment for Georgia GOP

Though it was hardly needed, our Georgia Republican legislators have offered up yet another fine example of their arrogance and sheer lack of professionalism. What did they do this time? When Chambliss and Isakson scheduled a private conference call with GOP legislators to discuss the immigration bill, one of them, or perhaps more than one of them served up the call-in number and pass code to none other than certified extremist, D.A. King. According to the guys at Political Insider, Saxby and Johnny were furious. I guess so. It's not clear from the article exactly when the two U.S. Senators learned that Mr. King was on the call. What a bunch of children.

No one should be surprised by this. As I pointed out in this piece in December of 2006, King is mighty chummy with some Georgia Republican lawmakers. I suggested then that he would certainly be in the room when immigration issues were discussed in Georgia. Who knew he would also be on the phone during what was supposed to be a private call?

This incident is more significant than just the fact that King was on the call and was not supposed to be. This breech, this disrespect of two sitting U.S. Senators, is symptomatic of the void of leadership with in the GOP and the utter arrogance of Republicans in the Georgia General Assembly. They are increasingly controlled by the extremists within their own Party, and they are more and more out of touch with the Georgians they are supposed to represent. This incident is emblematic of the fact that the GOP continues to fracture at its base.

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The Reddest of Herrings

Recently, the words, "Not on My Dime" were on the cover of the AJC. The article that followed was about an women who gave her immigrant staff Spanish to English dictionaries for Christmas along with a mandate that they not speak Spanish on the job. Just between us, I'm betting they would've rather had cash. This push to make English the official language in Georgia is the reddest of herrings, designed to capture the front page and the attention of voters while the legislature is busy with the really boring, but critical issues like changing the tax code and reforming the courts.

The "official language" issues is a perfect example of a platform designed to fuel "brain stem voting." Such an issue appeals to our most basic survival instincts: fear, fight, flight, identity etc. but often makes little sense. Brain stem voting is why people vote against their own economic self interest and in favor of the guy they identify with or "like." In the end, it matters little if at all when it comes to real quality of life issues in our State. Don't be fooled.

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