First they passed a law enabling cops to racially profile Hispanics and to arrest any immigrant, legal or not, who was not carrying around their papers with them. Now they've outlawed the teaching of ethnic history classes (goodbye Black History Month!), and moreover, accused teachers of these classes of fomenting rebellion. Are they going to declare the supremacy of the Aryan race next?

No seriously, this is insane.

Now are there anti-melting pot radical, crazy teachers in the world? Absolutely, I had one in college and hurriedly dropped the class when she started with her multiculturalism rhetoric. But the reaction by Arizona is at best an overreaction, and at worst completely wrongheaded and even illegal. The scary thing about it is, we've seen it before. In Kansas before the rational center finally rebelled and kicked out the crazy school board officials who were insisting that creationism be taught alongside evolution. It's a phenomenon that is becoming gradually worse: as liberals leave the small states for the cities, the small states are becoming increasingly red. For a while, this didn't mean anything. But now the right-wing fringe has realized that the out-flux is persistent, and that this enables them to seize absolute power in the small states. Arizona has an overwhelmingly Republican legislature. One wouldn't think this would be an issue but, the Rockefeller Republicans are an endangered species and today, most of the people running in red states today are outright loony if not plain stupid. As such, their thinking is getting increasingly erratic and even dictatorial.

I'm concerned that if there is not a strong response by the federal government against Arizona and soon, other red states will follow suit in abandoning social responsibility and attacking the rights of their citizens. It's worth noting that the government can do something: the U.S. code specifically prohibits the denial of rights and enables the prosecution of those who conspire to enable the same.