We’re planning a trip this summer that will take us thru Arizona. I told my husband from the very beginning that we will be staying in Arizona at least one nite and buying souvenirs as well. I’m on a BUYcott for Az., rather than a BOYcott. I feel strongly about a lot of things: littering, bullies, being honest with your kids, etc… but I rarely get involved in political things. I mean, I’ll post about them, but that’s about it. NOT this time. I am ALL FOR S.B. 1070. You may have gathered that from the other posts I’ve written. I am not against people looking for a better way of life.  That’s fine. But you do it THE RIGHT WAY. This would not be the right way:

Examples of THE RIGHT WAY:

You work hard.

You pay taxes.

You follow the laws.

You are self-reliant- don’t come looking for a handout.

You don’t trash our country.

You respect the land you are in and the country you so want to be a part of.

And you write your freakin’ rally signs in ENGLISH and you wave an AMERICAN flag.

I am not racist. This isn’t a RACE issue. (In fact, people often confuse RACE and ETHNICITY, but that’s another post.)  My 3 oldest children’s race is Caucasian, but  for arguments sake they are 1/2 whatever.  Their bio-dad is of “Hispanic origin”- but he, his parents, his grandparents and GREAT- grandparents were all born in the USA. Not that that is saying much since his siblings and himself are the only ones that speak correct (and that’s an exaggeration) English. But that’s not the point. My kids are 1/2 and my 2 youngest are 1/4 Samoan.  My man is 1/2 . My SIL is Hispanic. BIL is from Mexico. His brother, who is married to an American and has been here forever working legally and being a great person, was deported because of a screw up with his visa. He was actually at the immigration office to make sure his visa was all good and they realized there was a clerical error and held him right then and there.  He was separated from his pregnant (with twins) wife and missed the birth of his daughters. After the birth, his American wife and daugters had to move to Mexico to be with him until the paper mess was worked out. They are back now. I was so pissed and frustrated with that whole situation because here was a good guy, working hard, speaking English better than some people born and raised here, being a productive person and he gets deported because paperwork got messed up. Yet, there are others here, not even trying to GET paperwork, breaking the law, waving not USA flags, etc… and they are still here. That’s wrong. I also have several friends who have become US citizens in the last 10 years or so who are more American than a lot of natural born citizens.  My point is that I’m not walking around pointing at people, “He’s brown. Kick him out. She said ‘eh. Kick her out.” And that’s not what SB 1070 says to do either.

Moving on.  This picture pissed me off.

You know why? The sign that says, “We are all immigrants.”

Then I saw this shirt:

Um, REALLY??  I know I didn’t come over on a boat.  No one in the last 10 generations on my mom’s side and 6 generations on my dad’s side has come over on a boat. We were all born here. 10 generations y’all. It’s been 300 years since someone on my mom’s side immigrated to America. His name was Daniel McDaniel and he came over from Scotland. But I am not Scottish-American. I am American by birth… and Texan by the grace of God. I would never in a million years think to introduce myself as “Scottish-American.” Why would I? I’ve never even been to Scotland. And you know what? NONE of my family says they are Scottish-American. We don’t wave Scottish flags. We don’t celebrate made up Scottish holidays and get offended when others wave US flags on “our” day. My ancestor, Martin Anthony, came from Germany about 200 years ago. I’m not German-American. I don’t like Dirk because he’s German so we have so much in common. I AM AN AMERICAN. Period. So, unless you actually immigrated here stop saying “we are all immigrants” because it’s an ignorant argument.  By definition an immigrant is one who comes from another country to take up permanent residence. Because we have immigration laws in our country, coming here without following the law makes you an ILLEGAL immigrant- I don’t care what country you came from.  You know why we have immigration laws? Because the Indians didn’t. Yeah, I like the shirt I saw that said: Ask an Indian what happens when you don’t control immigration. Oh, and just FYI: the “Native Americans” weren’t the 1st people here either. People have been coming in and out for 1000 years. Just sayin’. Vikings need love too.

Sure, this country was founded by immigrants. Of course it was- most countries were!  People have immigrated in and out forever.  But to say you’re an immigrant when you aren’t one is ignorant. My dad’s a CPA. Does that make me one? I have a lot of school teachers in my family, so… I’m one too? 6 and 10 generations ago my brave ancestors left their home, traveled to America and EMBRACED this great country.  I feel to piggy-back on their courage and desire for a better life in this “new world” is wrong. They blessed my family by coming here and I will live as a PROUD AMERICAN to honor their bravery and sacrifice.

Immigration laws were created to protect us- the people LEGALLY living in the USA. They are designed to help protect us from disease, from job loss,  increase our personal safety and national security.  They don’t trample on anyone’s “rights” because if you are here illegally you don’t have those rights. Federal law since 1940 has said if you are an immigrant you need to carry your papers with you. And if you’re here legally then there is nothing to worry about.  If you are here illegally, well then “ILLEGALLY’ would be the key word….

And… I’m done… for now. I have so much to say but this post could go on and on forever. I love America. I am a PROUD American . I am thankful for our troops. I am thankful for my ancestors. God bless America.

I’m soooo wanting to just write a normal, non-political post, but…. There are so many things going on right now that frustrate me to no end. What the hell is happening to our country? I am so pissed that Obama would allow a president from another country come into our country and criticize us.  I’m thankful for people like McClintock:

I’m pissed that kids were sent home for wearing the flag of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA- you know, the country we live in?- because it was a holiday of another country that isn’t even celebrated in that other country. And all these people saying they were “disrespected” because the boys wore the flag shirts. Disrespected? You live in THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. And my guess is that a lot of these kids that were “disrespected”  haven’t even been to Mexico and don’t know WTH they are “celebrating” on Cinco de Mayo. You know, I know a guy VERY well who is Hispanic.  He was born and raised right here where I live.  Spanish was his 1st language- or I guess I should say “Spanglish” because whatever he speaks isn’t correct Spanish. (Seiuli’s Spanish is much better.) His grandma was born in Texas and never learned to speak English. His family got mad because when she was sick in the hospital the nurses didn’t know what she wanted because she couldn’t ask for juice IN ENGLISH. They said that was disrespectful because they should be able to get someone to translate. Um, hi, I could go to Mexico and ask for juice in Spanish and I wasn’t born and raised there. How different that is from my friend who lived in Mexico most of her life and became a US citizen in 2005- the legal way- and didn’t even teach her kids Spanish. She embraced the USA whole-heartedly. She loves America. She is thankful to be here and is an American thru and thru.

This country caters so much to minorities that they are alienating the majority. I’m sick of people being afraid to say anything because they might offend someone. I’m tired of 1 person complaining about a crucifix hanging somewhere, so they take it down. How many Christians were offended in order to NOT offend that 1 person? There was an atheist group in Utah fighting to have crosses that lined the highways to honor fallen Highway Patrol troopers removed. If you don’t believe in Christ, then why does a cross bother you? It doesn’t represent anything to you- it’s a just a marker with a name on it. I’m not Jewish, but I’m not offended by a person wearing a yarmulke. It’s not my religion, so why do I care?

And last, but not least… Los Suns? Seriously? More like Los Stupidos. The Phoenix Suns used to be my 2nd fave team. Um, yeah, not anymore. Don’t mix politics and basketball.  The comments made by CANADIAN Steve Nash disappointed me. Dude- you’re in the USA takin’ our money. You aren’t even from a country that I would want to be like. So, shut the heck up. And then the Suns’ general manager with his ignorant comments, “Any attempt to encourage, tolerate or legalize racial profiling is offensive and incompatible with basic notions of fairness and equal protection. A law that unfairly targets one group is ultimately a threat to all…“ Have you even read the law, idiot??

I LOVE this quote:

“What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into Suns’ games without paying? What if the owners had a good idea as to who the gate-crashers are, but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn’t be ejected. Furthermore, what if Suns’ ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary eats and drink? And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter?“

–Phil Mushnik, NY Post, May 16th, 2010

But yet, when a man tried to voice his support of 1070 he was asked to leave the Suns game… Seriously??

Ok. There, I’m done for now.  I’m still frustrated, but at least I got it out there. Go ahead and call me racist or whatever. I’m gonna go hang out with my mix-breed kids… lol

1) Remember my post from a few days ago? You know, the one where I said “ I worry for the police officers even more now that this law is passed. ” Yeah, I wrote that on Thursday, April 29. —> Friday, April 30 I read this article. I’m just sayin’…

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2) We got a dog. Yes, seriously. I am not a huge dog-person. But I always told Sei if we could find the “perfect dog” that would protect our family then I’d be happy. Then I watched a “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” on Animal Planet, and this chick had fallen in a canyon while running with her dog, Taz. She broke her pelvis, had internal bleeding and was slowly dying. Taz stayed with her, keeping her warm, for 2 days and then finally she told Taz to go get her help. That’s the 1st time Taz left her side. And he FOUND HELP for her!! How rad is that?? Anyway… my point is, I wanted a dog. So, we went to the animal shelter on Friday.  The kids were all looking at the smaller dogs. Um, no. The very last cage there she was… This mellow Black Mouth Cur (think “Old Yeller”) and I knew she was the one!! She had been in 2 different shelters in the last month because of over-crowding. She was spayed, had her shots and micro-chipped. She was also 1/2 price and we could take her home right then!! YAY!! This dog is awesome. I just heard her bark FOR THE 1st TIME this morning. She is so good with Taj and Livie and does what we say. It’s obvious it will take a little while for her to bond with us so she can save us if necessary, haha, but she is already a super cool dog. She’s about 7-8 months old. Oh yeah, the NAME!!! “We named the dog Indiana.”  For real, that’s a movie quote, but that’s also what we named her. We call her “Indy” for short.

Anyway, I am sooo looking forward to bonding with Indy more. Livie has been playing outside non-stop today with her and we went on a super long walk where I ended up carrying Liv on my back. WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY, INDIANA!!!!

I have had a special place in my heart for Arizona since I was 15 years old and spent 2 months living in the mountains… And now my awesome AZ is under attack because of the new immigration law.

Here’s my thoughts on that:

1st of all- get the facts. Cops can’t pull you over for being brown or talking with an accent or even for having this on your car window:

Although I think it would be hilarious if they pulled you over for having your vision obstructed. But whatever…

Anyway, this is my point: As a cop’s wife… the cops aren’t thrilled with it either because it puts them in an awkward position and now people are gonna yell “Racial profiling!” even more than they already do. However, there has been A LOT of incorrect assumptions and exaggerations about the law. http://24ahead.com/faq-arizonas-immigration-law-corrects-misconceptions-kobach
(PLEASE READ THIS LINK!!!!)
For example, cops can’t pull someone over for being brown or because they hear them talking with an accent while in line at the store. They can just legally ask for documentation if they already have them pulled over or detained for another reason and have reason to believe they may be illegal (acting extra nervous along with no English skills and no identification, etc…). It’s not suppose to be a witch hunt. Cops are busy enough without chasing around people with an accent. If you are behaving responsibly and not breaking the law, you should be good. Although, coming into our country w/o documentation is… illegal. And it’s been a FEDERAL crime since 1940 for immigrants to fail to keep their registration documents with them. Kinda like you need to have your passport with you in other countries… If you carry your drivers license, no matter what color you are or accent you have, they won’t ask for documentation. Or, if you are illegal, don’t break the law- anymore than you already have just by being in our country without documentation. Duh.

And maybe I’m weird, but why is everyone so up in arms about AZ wanting to secure their borders or stopping something that’s illegal?  I don’t get that. And why *aren’t* people pissed about how cops were getting pummeled with water bottles and whatever else just for trying to keep a rally peaceful- which wasn’t peaceful at all. Am I the only one that saw something really freakin’ wrong with that? I worry for the police officers even more now that this law is passed.

All I ask is that you get the facts before you spout crap about cops being racist and boycotting AZ. Oh and while we’re on the subject, boycotting Arizona is just about *the* dumbest idea ever. I found this interesting info:

For those of you who do not know; Human smugglers (Coyotes) are caught
weekly in Arizona. These smugglers bring Illegals into the Phoenix area and
store their human cargo (Pollos) in drop houses until they get paid a ransom
by family members or those contractors needing cheap labor. Some of these
Pollos are used to carry drugs as part of their payment to be smuggled into
the U.S.. The Pollos kept in these drop house are under armed guard and are
sometimes physically and sexually abused. Some gangs are kidnapping young
women from Latin America and bringing them here as slaves in the sex trade.
In the newspaper there are weekly stories of bodies that are found in the
desert. These bodies are those of illegal immigrants. If a Pollo gets sick
or injured while traveling across the desert the Coyote abandons them
because they cannot afford to be slowed down and captured by I.N.S. The
people I know are not opposed to immigration, we just want to retain our
rights as a sovereign nation. Mexico has very stringent laws about illegal
immigration and when an American citizen visits there we must carry proper
papers.

So, if you’re ok with all that- sex slaves, ransom, murder, etc…, then yeah, BOYCOTT ARIZONA. I’m NOT ok with that.  Why do we have laws if we don’t want them enforced?