Oh, Indiana. You are killing me right now! It's like I go to France and suddenly you can't keep your shit together anymore! Ok, in reality of course it has nothing to do with me being in France, and to be honest you've never been very good at keeping your shit together, but I must admit that my frustration with you is compounded by the fact that I can't physically be there to bitch about these things to your face. And, you know, attend some rallies and stuff.
First of all, SB 590. WTF Indiana? For those of you who don't know, SB 590 is basically a copycat bill of the bill in Arizona that, among other things, allows police officers to ask for proof of citizenship or legal residency if they have "reasonable suspicion" that the person they are detaining is in the US illegally. "Reasonable suspicion" of course being code for "brown skin." In effect this bill is just a way to legalize racial profiling. The Indiana form of the bill will also bar the use of any language other than English for almost all government business and transactions, meaning the state would have to shut down its Spanish language portal for printing government forms, etc, in Spanish, and it would bar the state from printing any foreign language ballots as well. Maybe they will at least use Spanish when they post all the "He-Man Hispanic Haters Club" signs at all the state borders. Is there a good Spanish translation for "No Spics Allowed?" No matter, I'm sure Gov. Daniels will come up with something good. He'll have plenty of free time on his hands once of all the Indiana businesses that run primarily on immigrant labor are shut down, which this new bill also requires. So let's see, that would be a huge percentage of farms (I'm especially thinking of Red Gold in Richmond), many, many landscaping and construction companies, fast food, restaurant kitchens, cleaning services... pretty much anything that we Gringos are to rich/lazy/high class to do for ourselves. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to try to pass a copycat of a bill that is currently entangled in some fierce federal litigation, does it? Seriously, Indiana, I'd like to be able to give you a little more credit, but you're making it awfully difficult right now.
For more information on SB 590, check out this article by Hispanically Speaking News. And if you'd like to (GASP!) actually do something about it, you can attend the March Against Racism tonight in Bloomington. The march kicks off at 5:30pm at the Sample Gates on IU's campus (intersection of Kirkwood and Indiana Aves), and goes until 7:30. You can find the Facebook event page for the march here.
In related news, it seems that the Indiana legislature is really just trying to destroy the state's entire labor force in one fell swoop. Protests have been going on all morning at the Indiana Statehouse in response to three anti-labor bills currently being discussed. One will prohibit automatic payroll deductions for union dues, one will end collective bargaining for teachers with their contracts, and one is the "right-to-work" bill who's Wisconsin twin has been raising hell in Madison for the last week.
According to union leaders, curtailing automatic payroll deductions for union dues will depress union wages, and in turn depress the wages of non-union workers as well. Because America's working class could certainly use another pay cut about now, right? As for messing with teachers and their rights to collective bargaining, I feel like that is akin to pissing off the people who handle your food, only on a much larger scale. You're pissing off the people who handle your children. The people who, when you think about it, probably have the largest influence on what this country will look like and how it will be run 20 years from now. And it seems to me that the result of that would be much worse than a hair on your sandwich or a booger in your burger. Backers of the "right-to-work" bill claim it will prevent Indiana from losing jobs to the 22 states that already have "right-to-work" bills, which essentially curtail or greatly diminish the power of labor unions in unionized companies and industries. According to Rep. Jerry Torr (R-Carmel) in this Indy Star article, "at least a third of businesses looking to move or expand only look at right-to-work states." Good, so let's contribute to the problem, rather than be a part of the solution. Clearly these business are looking to move or expand in places where the labor laws work more in favor of the companies, rather than the employees, so that the companies don't have to worry as much about silly things like a living wage or safe working conditions, and can focus more on their bottom line. And those pesky labor unions get in the way of that. So by all means, Indiana, let's jump on the idiocy bandwagon here, pay our workers less, treat them worse, and depress our economy even further. It's a classic argument, Indiana, but it bears repeating: just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean you have to. If 22 other idiots jumped off a bridge, would you do it too? You're standing on the edge right now, and I don't think there's a safety net.
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