Arizona governor: Boycott is misguided

Source: ESPN

In my 28 years of public service, I have made a lot of tough calls. But with a federal government unwilling to secure our border for years and years, Arizona is left with little choice. Imagine a sporting event in which rules have been agreed to for 70 years, but the umpires refuse to enforce those rules. It makes no sense. Although I recognize that Arizona Senate Bill 1070, as amended, is not the entire solution to our illegal immigration problem in Arizona, most people are united in the hope that it will finally inspire the politicians in Washington, D.C., to stop talking and to start action now.

By now, sports fans everywhere have heard something about the passage of Senate Bill 1070, a measure I signed into law. It has resulted in protests outside ballparks hosting our Arizona Diamondbacks and has led to calls on Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig to strip the City of Phoenix's opportunity to host baseball's Midsummer Classic in July 2011.

Urging Major League Baseball to take away next year's All-Star Game from Phoenix is the wrong play. In Arizona, both proponents and opponents of Senate Bill 1070 have stated that economic boycotts are an inappropriate and misguided response to an issue that is clearly worthy of proper public debate and discourse. Put simply, history shows that boycotts backfire and harm innocent people. Boycotts are just more politics and manipulation by out-of-state interests. As a border state, Arizona has already paid a heavy price for the federal government's failure -- hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in unreimbursed costs -- and its citizens should not be punished further.

It is critically important that all Americans understand the impetus for this new law and have a clear understanding of the law itself. Our neighbor to the south, Mexico, is in a massive battle with well-organized drug cartels. Because of Washington's failure to secure our southern border, Arizona has become the superhighway of illegal drug and human smuggling activity. In December 2008, the U.S. Justice Department said that Mexican gangs are the "biggest organized crime threat to the United States." In 2009, Phoenix had 316 kidnapping cases, turning the city into our nation's kidnapping capital. Almost all of the persons kidnapped were illegal immigrants or linked to the drug trade.


Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=brewer/100505

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I hadn't seen this posted anywhere. Apparently in the wake of "Los Suns" and the attempt to move the MLB All-Star game, Governor Brewer felt it was appropriate to address the ESPN readers.

Pretty interesting read not necessarily for her reasoning (all the normal talking points including her list of "facts") but more for her plea not to boycott. She makes it sound like the boycott would be quite effective.

they have lots of rules they won't enforce.

That's what I'm talkin' about. The US might be screwed, but Red Sox Nation lives!

And WTF with Gov. Brewer's "federal government unwilling to secure our borders" noise? This, from the regional headquarters of the bullshit industry called state's rights? It sounds like she's asking permission.

The boycott will grow and Arizona will be even more sorry. Onward! Next comes that super-corrupt turbo-coward named Bud Selig.

It gives credence to the seriousness of being boycotted.

does nothing to end the drug issues mentioned. It makes scapegoats of minorities and dismisses our responsibility to bring sanity into our debate on drug policy.

Why is it that narrow-minded people tend to believe that everyone else is, or should be as narrow-minded as they are?

Some say the bill you signed into law is misguided.

Ha...ha.. never mind "Bring it Xultar....Bring it"

:popcorn: :beer:

ESPN did post this article, but actually most of the articles on the website concerning this issue support the boycott. I think this might have been posted by ESPN so as to balance out what every other columnist on the website was saying.

Plus they had Steve Nash discussing the law on ESPN yesterday. In fact, as a regular watcher of the station, the only person I've really seen supporting it is the much disliked Skip Bayless. Even TNT (showing the game last night) had its panel unanimously bashing the law and Arizona politicians. I especially loved Charles Barkley calling Brewer the "interim governor". Only negative was Chris Webber saying "John McClain" which lost him credibility points.

Charles Barkley has (re)gained his sanity!

This woman begs to differ.

This boycott is focussed upon Arizona and is specific in its motive for the boycott. It is local in that it is Arizona and not the entire country.

A boycott of Walmart would be wildly popular here at DU, but Walmart is rich and powerful and has many stores all across the nation and outside of places like DU it is very popular with most Americans.

Not all boycotts are created equal or are equally effective.

not buses on routes that white folk would have used. And they certainly didn't own the bus companies. So, that was a very different situation. A lot of people, frail or not, walked everywhere to support the boycott, but that was their choice--to a point.

When you boycott Arizona about Mexicans, you are going to cost Mexican business owners money, Mexican employees tips, maybe jobs, too. Same for non-Mexicans who may disagree vehemently with this law.

So, in this boycott, it's not a question of doing no harm. It's a question of whether doing harm to some innocents is worth it.

"It's a question of whether doing harm to some innocents is worth it..."

Or it may be a question of which is the greater harm-- the law or the boycott, and how much pain may be inflicted in pursuit of a greater good.

I have asked her if she had learned of what happened in Prince William County Va and other places before she signed the bill, she refused to answer. I don't know if her silence is due to knowledge of how it failed miserably or if she plain out didn't do any real research. Either way, she is a fool.

Arizona not recognizing the MLK Holiday!! She is ignorant!

,,,,she's an ugly hag whose voice is almost as bad as Palin.

Does not compute. Sorry.

In every case that I have found it has turned racist and has divided the community. It has turned the economy bad, caused crime to go up and hurt citizens that should never have been affected. Pure and simple, it is a terror.

May your constituents debate you and your hateful law right out of the picture.

Edited to add:

, you hateful asshole.

... up the rights of people to "Cure" the disease.

Ahhh the Republicans so knee jerk on actions but short on realizing the repercussions of their bad decisions.

that help diminish the so-called drug wars at the border? As for Ms. Brewer, she's an idiot, and I fully support the boycott.

According to a panel I heard on NPR yesterday, this dumb law is having an effect in other border communities. Merchants are saying that there has been a precipitous drop in the amount of traffic they depend on for survival, some of them in TX border towns. She doesn't know it yet, but this dumb law will have much farther reaching effects than intended.

...your brain...or was it your soul.

I am aware of a story about her son that I have approached with her office. He committed a sexual assault on a girl a while back and when Jan found out she committed him to a mental institution to keep him from being picked up. When the time was over for him to be charged he was allowed to leave the institution. I heard about this after I got here in Phoenix and dismissed it as just another story, but in the process of trying to get information on other issues, I happened to ask about her son. I was told that was a subject they were allow to ever mention which led me to start believing it did happen. Just shows how little interest she has in doing the right thing.

They didn't cross the border, the border crossed them.

sorry had to get that off my chest.

It would have been better if she put the national guard on the border. Also, The feds shouldn't have stopped construction of the border fence.

there are ecologically sensitive areas in southern Arizona - wildlife migration lanes - that need to be kept as open as possible. Most of the birds and, probably, the fish would be all right, but there are mammals like the javelina and the deer that wouldn't be able to migrate.

And decrim everything else while you're at it if you really want the killing to stop.

I had vacation plans for Arizona, and they've been cancelled. I made certain everyone knew why. I'm just one customer, but multiply me a few times, and it hurts!

* The governor has a lot to be worried about.


From Democracy Now this morning:


Guest:

Dave Zirin, author of “A People’s History of Sports in the United States.” He is a regular contributor to The Nation magazine and writes a weekly column called Edge of Sports


snip* DAVE ZIRIN: Amy, anybody who believes that sports cannot be an effective platform for social justice need only to have watched the game last night and they would’ve been forever changed. The broadcast alone last night, it started with one of the NBA reporters outside the arena covering a civil rights march that was taking place outside the arena. And then the in-studio hosts, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, Chris Weber, all former players, took turns taking shots a Governor Jan Brewer and the law. And Chris Weber, former player, even cited “By the Time I Get to Arizona” and John McCain and his former support for boycotting the holiday of Dr. Martin Luther King. So it’s politicized this entire arena. And what the Suns did yesterday, is entirely without precedent.


JUAN GONZALEZ: Dave, for one second. On the commentators-


DAVE ZIRIN: Yes, please.


JUAN GONZALEZ: I happened to listen to that pregame discussion and I was especially struck by Charles Barkley, the legendary former star, who actually played in Phoenix.


DAVE ZIRIN: Yes.


JUAN GONZALEZ: He was a big figure in Arizona for many years, condemning it as racial profiling. I was struck by how strong these athletes and former athletes, especially in basketball- we’re not even talking here about the Latino ball players in baseball, but we’re talking about the major African-American and white stars in basketball-


DAVE ZIRIN: Right.


JUAN GONZALEZ: Have stepped up to the plate on this issue.


DAVE ZIRIN: Well, some of your listeners and people viewing the show right now might be remembering that Charles Barkley once called himself a Republican. But a couple of years ago he said, ‘Well, I used to be a Republican, until the Republicans lost their damn minds.’ And I think yesterday he reflected that by speaking about how utterly toxic this law is, both for the state fo Arizona and for the country. And look what that does for the discussion. I mean, on sports radio yesterday, they were debating the immigrant law. Steve Nash’s quotes that you played have been played all over the country. And I think what’s happened is because the organization as a whole came out against it, the owner Robert Sarver, the general manager Steve Kerr, numerous players saying publicly that they were against it, it’s provided a degree of cover for everybody. I want to make clear that I don’t think the Suns would have done this if it wasn’t for the protests that have been taking place wherever the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Major League Baseball team, have played. There have been protests in half a dozen cities since this law was passed, wherever the Diamondbacks play and I don’t think the Phoenix Suns wanted to be a pariah team like the D’backs.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/6/from_basketball_to_baseball_professional_athletes

I suspect you'll soon be spending "more time with my family". You weren't elected to start with and there won't be a "re-election".

oh, I don't know, say doing something about the drug trade, like decriminalizing it so the profit goes away, or exposing the employers (including their political affiliation) who just love having cheap labor, let's go after the people at the bottom of the economic ladder. Especially if they look suspicious.

Special note for the Freepers: do you think people take such incredible risks to get here just so they can be harassed by you? Or because they want to be murkins? Or because they just want to be near God's chosen people?

not even a GPS could help.

x(
rocktivity

Enjoy your boycott, you Nazi c@w.

miss high and mighty up on a pedesstal..wonder if she's as pure as she portrays herself?

Whining that the Federal Government made them racist and they can't take responsibility for being racist assholes.

If she's worried enough to write something on the subject, it's already having the desired effect.

IMHO, but if you are so inclined, boycott. We are. It's the only way she (and those in her state that support this idiotic legislation,) will get the message.

... my a$$. Leave it to a republican majority to come up with dipshit laws.

Sounds good to me.

Q3JR4.

Excerpt from OP, Brewer said:

"In Arizona, both proponents and opponents of Senate Bill 1070 have stated that economic boycotts are an inappropriate and misguided response to an issue that is clearly worthy of proper public debate and discourse."
----
... um... regarding the "issue" you're referring to, Governor? Didn't you sign the "issue" into law? Didn't it occur to you that public debate and discourse is supposed to happen PRIOR to signing something into law?
(Or am I reading this wrong...?)


"Put simply, history shows that boycotts backfire and harm innocent people."
----
...again, the simple fact that a governor isn't equipped with the foresight or intellect to foresee that such a dramatic political legislative move would most **definitely** result in massive protests that would seriously compromise various economic (and more) components the state relies on....?

How could someone be governor and NOT think, "Gee, this could be really bad for us, money-wise..." Or something...

That alone should disqualify her from public office. What a lack of thinking skills....

the boycott will appeal to your sense of greed.

Karma is a bitch, isn't it?

I wont go to any state where I need a passport or a birth certificate as part of my papers.