Florida, Arizona, and The Police State

As some of you may or may not know one point of contention between Bill McCollum & Rick Scott in the Florida Gubernatorial race concerns the Arizona Senate Bill 1070 AKA Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act .

Possibly to enact the same in Florida.

It obligates police to make an attempt, when practicable during a "lawful stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official", to determine a person's immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is an illegal alien.

Now who is to say what "reasonable suspicion" is?

Is it because you look Hispanic, Latino, Mexican, Cuban, Arabic, Israeli, Eurasian, you have red hair, or blue, you name it, or you could be wearing a shirt that purports coexistence between all the world religions, and that could make you 'suspicious.'

This seems to me to be "racial profiling." Aren't we supposed to be NOT engaged in profiling!

So 'they' haul you off to jail, detention, lock up or whatever you'd like to call it, until 'they' decide either you're American enough to release or not enough and keep you incarcerated for an 'unspecified length of time.'

For those of us old enough to remember sounds a bit like McCarthyism and the old Soviet KGB tactics.

Want a little foretaste of what could be in our future? Watch the movie "V for Vendetta." What a little fearmongering won't do for granting the Government control of our lives.

Isn't our country defined as "The Great Melting Pot." A place where immigrants of different cultures or races form an integrated society.

This from Schoolhouse Rock back in the day:
"You simply melt right in,

It doesn't matter what your skin.

It doesn't matter where you're from,

Or your religion, you jump right in

To the great American melting pot.

Oh, what a stew, the red, white, and blue."

HELLO Government people! This is what is engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, written by Emma Lazarus daughter of Portuguese Sephardic Jews:
"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Quit hammering on these people that just got to the United States of America, looking for a better life, and what do we do, we ship them right back to where they came from after they worked so hard to get here.

Now I know not everyone is perfect and the criminal element comes right in with the good.

Thomas Jefferson said, "When the Government fears the People, there is liberty. When the People fear the Government, there is tyranny." Although, I also appreciate the quote from Edmund Dantes in V for Vendetta, "People should not fear their government, the government should fear the people."

Was not the U.S. Gov't founded with the intent of preventing tyranny (sure seems like the good ol' US of A is being a bit tyrannical) and investing the people with 'inalienable human rights.'

Think about that word:"Inalienable" what do we call people who are not "Americans'. that's right 'Aliens', not the kind from outer space, but the kind from a space (country) that is not our own.

Webster's defines Inalienable as : incapable of being alienated. So in other words we should treat everyone like they are our brothers, not some evil, wicked, mean, and nasty monster.

The Gov't should remember the Golden Rule "treat others as you would like to be treated."

The Bible has this to say on the matter: Matt. 25:40 "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto Me."

Someday we, meaning the United States, may need the assistance of the countries these people have come from, and guess what those countries are going to remember how we treated their countrymen.

Another thought as I part, which I will expand on more at a later date on my blog.

It is bad enough that Florida alone has over 30,000 surveillance cameras, and now the Sunshine State will be adding more "Traffic/Red Light Runner" ones as well.

The average American is caught on surveillance cameras across the United States on average 200 (two hundred) times per day.

Now I am all for security, I served in both the U.S. Navy and Army, but I think Big Brother is getting too big for his britches.

And any country or state for that matter, that gives up freedom for security is not somewhere I would want to live.

Well, I will be looking forward to your thoughtful responses to my rambling on this subject.

Give It Some Thought!

Mad Doc

Remember *Writing is the socially acceptable form of Schizophrenia*

Two of my favorite sayings in closing:
1) If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced.

2) "It is the duty of those who CAN see what is going on to expose to those who cannot see, the situation that they are unaware of!"