On Local Government: Study Arizona’s history

Evan Mecham, the late former governor of Arizona, was a divisive force during the 1980s. His term of just over 15 months was cut short by his impeachment. It seems that he loaned his former auto dealership $80,000 in campaign funds. A fellow Mormon, onetime state Senate President Stan Turley, once was quoted as calling him “an ethical pygmy.”

But, what Mecham may be most known for was his rescinding of the state holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., saying his predecessor, Democrat Bruce Babbitt, had illegally enacted it and that the issue deserved a public vote. This decision prompted public protests and, eventually, a national convention boycott.

Fast forward to 2010. Arizona’s newest accidental governor, Jan Brewer, has signed legislation which would “prohibit classes that advocate ethnic solidarity, that are designed primarily for students of a particular race or that promote resentment toward a certain ethnic group.” It also prohibits classes that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government.

For example, the Tucson Unified School District program offers courses in African-American, Mexican-American and Native-American studies that focus on history and literature and include information about the influence of a particular ethnic group. For example, in the Mexican-American Studies program, an American history course explores the role of Hispanics in the Vietnam War, and a literature course emphasizes Latino authors.

The lead supporter of the bill, State schools chief Tom Horne, a Republican running for attorney general, said the program promotes “ethnic chauvinism” and racial resentment toward whites while segregating students by race. He’s been trying to restrict it ever since he learned that Hispanic civil rights activist Dolores Huerta told students in 2006 that “Republicans hate Latinos.” District officials said the program doesn’t promote resentment, and they believe it would comply with the new law.

This will be an interesting battle.

This law follows closely on the heels of a controversial law which empowers law enforcement to detain those people considered possible illegal aliens based upon a determination by any police officer that that person’s status should be checked. This process has raised the specter among some that racial profiling will take place. After all, they say, it is unlikely that a check will be made of a person from Poland, Ireland or China.

I have heard Gov. Brewer, who was Secretary of State, the next in line to the governorship when Janet Napolitano was appointed US Homeland Security Secretary, speak, and she does not make me think of a MENSA candidate. In fact, at a meeting of security officials from southern Arizona counties and northern Mexican states, she couldn’t remember and, when prompted, couldn’t pronounce the name of the Arizona Homeland Security Director she had just hired. He is Hispanic.

But, she is running for a full term and needs to suck up to the xenophobic voters of Arizona. Perhaps her Tourism Director, if she can remember her name, can remind her of Mecham’s fate. ER