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Arizona, Arpaio, civil liberties, Dolores Huerta, Immigration March, Joe Arpaio, Linda Ronstadt, MLK III, sinema, voting rights
‘Only when it’s dark enough can you see the stars’
On the Martin Luther King holiday weekend in 2010, more than twenty thousand of us gathered in Phoenix, Arizona to march from Falcon Park to Sheriff Joe Arpaio‘s ‘Tent City,’ the 7-acre outdoor jail he once described as a “concentration camp” to supporters at his local Italian-American club. A place where, in the summer, temperatures inside could reach up to 130 degrees. (54C), a place where detainees convicted of minor offenses, were subjected to inhumane, humiliating treatment, a place that remained open for almost a quarter of a century. Arpaio was so proud of his prison experiment that he often invited the media to watch when new inmates arrived – a cheap tactic to spread his anti-immigrant vitriol. While he was ultimately convicted of criminal contempt for illegal detentions of undocumented immigrants, he had a supporter in Donald Trump, so proud of Arpaio that he branded him a “great American patriot,” and ultimately granted him a presidential pardon.
That Saturday morning, we came in peace, hoping that President Obama would hear us and finally pass immigration reform, hoping that we could make a difference by raising our voices against the Maricopa County Sheriff Office’s immigration tactics, the continued indiscriminate attacks and raids against our undocumented immigrant brothers and sisters living in Maricopa County. Arrogant and unfazed, America’s “toughest sheriff” announced that, when we arrived at the jail, officials would play Linda Ronstadt’s music over the PA system to drown out our noise, motivating us to be louder.
Arpaio, escucha . . . estamos en la lucha!
Prior to the march, Ronstadt had told the Phoenix New Times
Arpaio is a sadistic man. I come from a police family. My brother was the chief of police in Tucson for many years, a real law man . . . He was the one who made me understand that when the law is unevenly applied or badly applied, it weakens all law. That’s what’s very concerning about Sheriff Arpaio.
People poured in from all over the United States – immigrant families from as far away as New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C. carrying signs bearing simple messages of humanity: “We are Human” “and “Stop the Hate.” Leading us in the 3 mile march to the Maricopa County jail complex, among others, was heroic United Farm Workers union leader and activist for the rights of farm workers and women, Dolores Huerta, who made an impassioned plea for the removal of officials like Sheriff Arpaio, and as she spoke to the growing yet quietening crowd, I noticed a group of students from Brophy Prep, a local Catholic boy’s school. Knelt in prayer, in support of their immigrant peers, they lifted my heart.
By her side, was Linda Ronstadt. She led us all the way to Tent City, urging everyone to be peaceful. And we were.
I’m here because I’m an Arizonan. I was born in Arizona. My father was born in Arizona. My grandmother was born in Arizona. I love Arizona, and Sheriff Arpaio is bad for Arizona. He’s making Arizona look bad because he’s profiling and he’s applying the law in an uneven and unjust way, and that weakens the law for all of us.
More than a decade later, immigration policies are still in shambles, and Ronstadt is still an ally for the most vulnerable immigrants among us, recently encouraging her fans to join her in supporting the work of No More Deaths – No Más Muertes an advocacy group committed to ending the deaths of undocumented immigrants crossing the desert near the USA-Mexico border.
When temperatures soar above 110 degrees on the hottest days of the year, Ronstadt asks that we give generously to help provide food, water, and aid to migrants facing the most treacherous of desert conditions. An avid supporter of all humanitarian aid activists along the US-Mexico border and a member of Green Valley Samaritans, she knows and understands the brutal conditions of the desert and the plight of migrants who try to cross it. She also knows what America should – and could – do to help them.
Ronstadt’s is a cry for justice and on the eve of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, a reminder that it is also a call to fully realize the promise of a democracy that is now threatened by unjust immigration laws – laws that rip children from their parents; the laws that close borders to those desperate for asylum; the multiple laws passed last year that add restrictions on voting such as those in Arizona, where the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brnovich vs. Democratic National Committee allowed Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich to uphold state voting measures to not count the votes of legitimate voters who cast their ballot in the wrong precinct and to make it a felony for anyone other than a family member, household member or caregiver to return an absentee voter’s completed ballot. And, a democracy that is threatened by the Senate’s filibuster.
Dr. King’s son Martin Luther King III, was joined by his family in Phoenix yesterday, on what would have been his father’s 93rd birthday, with a rally against the filibuster, just days after Arizona Senator Sinema defended the filibuster. Martin Luther King III told the crowd, “At the end of the day, history is not going to judge Sinema favorably.” 
What would his father do? He tells the Guardian
He would continue to dig in. He stayed on issues. When we look at the demonstrations that took place, whether it was Birmingham, whether it was Selma. Birmingham created the climate for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They didn’t just give up and say, ‘oh, we’re not gonna get a civil rights act. They continued and continued and continued and ultimately a civil rights act was passed. The Voting Rights Act was a campaign. There were several marches. The first one, John Lewis and Hosea Williams from my dad’s organization led across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. But there were two or three more attempts and finally the third march that they had and finally the Voting Rights Act was passed. So my point is, Dad would be mobilizing, organizing, strategizing and making a way it would seem out of nowhere.
Only when it’s dark enough can you see the stars.
Beautiful post, Yvonne. What the hell is wrong with this country? It really does seem to be imploding.
I know. It’s disheartening.