We're comin' to America!

There are so many things fucking right with this video.

Neil Diamond was not my first thought last week as I walked into the law school. Funny, it usually is. As I entered, I was greeted by a group of people who were most decidedly not law students. No, not beleaguered twentysomethings, but whole families, dressed up, smiling, and holding American flags and speaking, well, not English. After reading the sign, "Naturalization ceremony in Room 25," it all made sense.

I was naturalized some 23 years ago by an old judge in a nondescript courtroom. I still have the picture. I had a look in my eyes that said 2 things:
1. Why is this old man in a bedsheet holding me and why does he smell like Fritos?
2. Holy shit.
If I were to be naturalized today and someone memorialized it with a picture, I would have the very same look in my eyes. Since my memories of being naturalized and my knowledge of the process  come only from an old photograph, I can (safely?) assume that being held in the arms of some old judge is a mandatory part of the process. But maybe my judge only ate Fritos some days. I don't know if that part is a requirement. But I know for sure that I would still be thinking holy shit, this is a big deal! [Joe Biden: you mean a big fucking deal] Yes, it is a BFD.

Smiling images of these fresh off the vine Americans was juxtaposed sadly with that ghastly Arizona law that just passed, making it Morning in America once again....for racial profiling, that is. Things haven't been this rosy for the profilers among us since it was a television show (things got worse in a hurry for profilers when they realized that the television show was not a loving tribute to racism, but rather a "gritty" crime drama (really, what crime dramas aren't "gritty") about Dr. Sam(antha) Waters who has the magical ability to "see" through the eyes of others (a trait otherwise known as "empathy") while motivated by the death of her husband at the hands of the serial killer dubbed The Jack of All Trades) But fear not, profilers, the PATRIOT act was a pretty decent consolation prize after Profiler went off air in 2000.

And ok, you're right seething anti-illegal immigration dude, illegal immigration is a problem. I'm not saying that it isn't. But can one state, in one fell swoop vanquish civil liberties in such a heavy-handed (and probably unconstitutional) way? I hope not. Do we not learn from our past?

I'm reading two books right now that tangentially relate to this. One, Zoli, is by the amazing author Colum McCann. It's a book about a Gypsy poet (say "Gypsy poet" in Borat's accent, I know you want to) who becomes famous in post-WWII Eastern Europe but is later shunned by her family and community. Her family was killed by Nazi sympathizers. During the war, she gets hassled by soldiers on the city streets who ask for her papers because she looks Gypsy.

The other is called The Bravest Battle. It's about the heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against Nazi extermination in WWII.

I'm hesitant to compare this to Nazi Germany (apparently there's a day for that and a website for other like comparisons), but is it too crazy to imagine a situation in Arizona now where a sheriff stops someone on the street and asks to see their "papers"? And can you imagine a WWII movie not having at least one scene where this same situation occurs between a Jew and a Nazi? Ok, hopefully you made the comparison all by yourself -- it saves me from some rancor from the few Glenn Beck fans among my readers (although, I do remember seeing President Obama crudely given the Hitler stache during healthcare tea parties...just sayin').

I'm left wondering why we're reduced to these partisan battles when there are so many other important issues to tackle. Because a law like this doesn't solve a problem like illegal immigration, it just fuels hate and racism. For the new Americans among us, I'm glad you're here. You show we discouraged that the United States is still a place to treasure, that it is still seen as the "City Upon a Hill" John Winthrop promised his Puritans so long ago. But, like Winthrop's flock, we are an imperfect, sometimes ugly group. Welcome to the club, we're not all so bad as our racist laws make us out to be. Hey, we've still got Neil Diamond.