Word: arizona
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...Arizona has stepped back into the proverbial ethnic boxing ring again with Senate Bill 1070, which was signed by current Governor Jan K. Brewer, and House Bill 2281, which was pushed mainly by Superintendent of Public Instruction Thomas C. Horne ’67 (Horne is also running for the position of state attorney general). SB 1070 requires that “for any lawful conduct made by a law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or subdivision of this state, where reasonable suspicion exists that this person is an alien who is unlawfully...
Something interesting is happening in Arizona. Two bills are on the table, one targeting illegal immigrants and one targeting ethnic-studies classes in local schools. Somehow, as I follow the controversy surrounding these two pieces of legislation, I’m reminded of another time when I watched a curious thing taking place in the state of Arizona. It was the early 1990s, I was in ninth grade in Cleveland, Ohio, and the issue was the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King...
...Arizona had previously observed the national Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday but had rescinded the holiday in 1986 under Governor Evan Mecham. Then-Governor J. Fife Symington III ’68, when he came into office in 1991, refused to bring the holiday back to the state despite passionate appeals from a small, but determined, group of activists within the state. Initially, Senator John S. McCain supported and defended Symington in his refusal, but as the political winds changed due to boycotts and public outcry so did McCain, especially once it became clear that Arizona stood to lose...
...Arizona was in line to host a very lucrative little football game called the Super Bowl. The National Football League got involved and told Arizona to honor the holiday, threatening that “if anything was done to dishonor the memory of Dr. King,” the committee would vote to rescind the awarding of the Super Bowl to the state of Arizona. Even McCain’s midstream flip-a-roo was not enough; Arizona voters struck down the holiday, and the NFL ultimately changed the site of the 1993 Super Bowl from Tempe, Ariz. to Pasadena...
Observing as a ninth grader what the NFL did 20 years ago left me with the impression that Arizona was not a very hospitable place for African-Americans. Today the target of Arizona’s animus has changed. Immigrants and ethnic-studies programs are now in the spotlight, and I wonder, what are ninth graders in Arizona and around the country thinking today when they look at the goings on in that state? It is almost incomprehensible that in America today the state of Arizona would ban children in high school from taking classes that allow them to learn...