I always knew that I was out of place in Arizona.  Not on everything but more and more I am the dissident politically. I like to think that it is because I am reasonable and that others are bat-shit crazy but that is not always the case.  Sometimes, not always.  Most people have their own internally consistent view on the world that is fully defensible in their eyes.  I may think they are wrong but that is because I have my own internally consistent view on the world.

I never approach a political debate assuming the person is insane, or even stupid but it is tough when coming from a completely different worldview. The case came up on Mother’s Day Sunday.

You know the saying, “Never discuss religion or politics in polite company?”  It’s there for a reason.  When your grandmother, cousin, and aunt are all at the same table as you laughing about how AZ SB1070 is exactly what is needed to get things done and that no citizen should have any problem proudly displaying their ID, you should just keep quiet.  So I did.  I should have walked away instead of sitting there trying to ignore the specifics.

I have a problem with SB1070.  It’s not because I think we should sit back and accept illegal immigrants, or even that we should be more lax.  I have a problem with being asked to prove my citizenship on the whim of a police officer.  I hate the facebook post that made its way around the day I left facebook :

Why is it that if you cross the North Korean border illegally? You get thrown into prison and get 12 years of hard labor. If you cross the Iranian border while out supposedly leisurely hiking in the hills you get arrested and imprisoned. But if you cross the U.S. border illegally you get a drivers license, Social Security card and free health care?

First, this is old, and you aren’t some political revolutionary for posting this on your wall.  Second, it is a faulty argument because the reference is “You can’t get away with it there, why can you get away with it here?!”  North Korea and Iran are relative police states.  Stop using this as your example.  If you want our government to replicate the policies of those governments then you do not stand for the same Freedoms as I do.  Some people use Mexico, or China, or Afghanistan as examples but it comes back to the same point.  If you want our country run like theirs, then use their border policies as ours.  That is the choice you make.

Anyway, the argument escalated with family until it was just my grandfather belligerently yelling about how government forms are now in “THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAN and MEXICAN” to which I challenged that the US is one of the few countries that is so dramatically trying to hold onto monolingual system and that multilingual environments are actually better for the speaker.

I even had to explain that our country is not a direct democracy for a good reason.  If the consensus of the majority is to suppress the rights of anyone, then it must not be allowed to pass.  So even though 70% of Arizonans are reported to support the bill, it is not enough to simply have the majority decide the fate of such a troublesome bill (which is why we have the judicial branch in the first place, right?).

I do believe the bill to be a form of veiled racism.  Yes, the bill doesn’t come out and say “Mexicans have to show ID” – it is built in an environment where the purpose is exactly that.  We live in an environment where it is taboo to be racist, so it has to come another way.  Protecting our borders and our resources.  That seems to work.  Oh, and by the way, crime rates are actually LOWER for illegal immigrants – so don’t try that either.

I ended up walking away in the middle of the conversation once I was told that I should join the armed forces in order to get a re-adjustment on my views.  I went to the bathroom for about 10 minutes to compose myself.  After composing myself, I walked out of the house to my car so that I could install the child’s seat that we had removed earlier that week.  While doing that, my grandfather came out and helped me silently.

He didn’t directly apologize for his attack, and I didn’t apologize for mine.  He did say that the fight wasn’t between him and I, but that it escalated because of all these “idiots” sticking their noses where it doesn’t belong. I told him, quite tearfully, that what upset me the most about our conversation was that I believe in the Freedoms this country has afforded us and that the entire purpose of our system is that he and I can disagree and we can still run as a country.  I just wish that political discourse, especially within family, could be more respectful.  He told me he loved me and we hugged.

I don’t know what else to say about that.  It meant quite a bit to me to have reached that point with him.  I don’t think I can explain it any better.  Well maybe, it’s kinda like Red telling Eric Forman that he loves him except in my case, love is OK apologies are not.  It isn’t ever said but the exchange is just as important.

I am just glad we didn’t get into religion.  Being the sole atheist in our family would create quite a wave if we ever actually spoke about it.

I am the dissident black sheep and I can’t keep quiet.  That’s one of the main reasons why I left facebook.  My reasoning came down to “If my sole reason for visiting that site consistently is to correct or debate people I barely know, then I need to not visit it.”  I don’t miss FarmVille, I don’t miss Castle Age, and I don’t miss the petty arguments.  I know I need to fix something else in my brain so that I don’t need to correct or debate things as often.  Until then, I can at least stay away from facebook.