The Dance

Last night I got a phone call survey asking if I thought 'illegal immigrants' should have driver's licenses in New Mexico.  When I said I thought it was okay the call was terminated.  Obviously the poll was being done for our xenophobe Governor Susanna Martinez. I just happen to think that immigrants should be allowed to give their legal U.S. born children a ride to school.

Meanwhile the dance was going on in the New Mexico House of Representatives where a ban on such driver's licenses was voted out of the chamber, with the help of Navajo Democratic members, McKinley county members, southern democrats and Al Park of Albuquerque.  He is doing the dance because he wants to run for higher office and being a xenophobe is the way to do it.  He argues that his vote just gets it over to the Senate where the bill will supposedly die.  Either way, Park left his credentials as a pretty nice guy in the waste can.

And then, hilariously, there is a story in the Albuquerque Journal about the rebound of the Chile crop in New Mexico after suffering a 10 year low last year.  The problem cited for the future was a dwindling labor force to nurture and harvest the crops.  Getting rid of the ability of immigrant pickers to drive to their assigned fields will just do wonders for that valuable cash commodity.

There was a stunning documentary this week on PBS about the travails of the Freedom Riders in the early 1960's and the violence, imprisonment and beatings they endured.  Their whole ordeal involved getting into multi passenger vehicles with white people.  They endured the xenophobia of Alabama and Mississippi.  Put yourselves into the shoes of immigrant families in this state and wonder if they are feeling like those freedom riders.