Prejudice, I Didn’t See This Coming

As a member of the 70% of Arizonans who support the anti-immigration law recently passed in Arizona, it’s also true that, at least temporarily, it *will* increase prejudice.

Here’s how it happens.

Yesterday on the way to the range, we stopped at Taco Felix to get something to go. We were the only customers in the store. As we stood at the counter ready to order, the order-taker was busy wiping down the counter directly in front of us. She glanced up at us but kept wiping, and wiping, and wiping.

Meanwhile the cook, with nothing to do, leaned out from the kitchen and looked first at us, and then at her. She kept wiping, and wiping, and wiping.

Finally after several minutes had passed and she had noticed the cook staring at her, she put down her cloth and took our order which the cook promptly prepared. We paid and left.

Yes, she was almost certainly angry and resentful at us and, it is true although she didn’t know it, that I had encouraged the Governor to sign this bill into law (by email).

That’s called prejudice.

And to be completely honest, because of that treatment, I will be less likely to frequent that restaurant as well as others that have a predominantly hispanic work force because, frankly, I didn’t like the treatment I got.

And when I do that, it is also called prejudice.

The bottom line is that the federal government hasn’t been doing their job for quite some time. Now that others are making noises that they *are* going to do it, many are resentful.

And the resentfulness provokes our prejudices.

It’s a bad situation all around, I admit, but letting it continue to go unchecked will just perpetuate the problem.

We are a civilization of laws. We, as a collective, make those laws so we can live together in relative peace.

And while it is true that there are some bad laws, it is also true that there are ways to get those laws changed.

Ignoring the laws you don’t like isn’t the way to do it.

If you want change, then you’ve got to make the change happen, and when it comes to laws, you’ve got to work within the system. If you don’t, that’s called anarchy.

And I don’t want that, and neither do a very large number of other citizens of the United States.