We
lost a bitter legislative battle this year, as Alabama Legislators voted to
make the nation's most toxic anti-immigrant law even more poisonous than anyone
could have imagined. Added to the notorious HB 56 is a requirement that
counties plaster the names and faces of undocumented persons in prominent
public places -- chillingly like the old "Wanted - Dead or Alive!"
posters from the Wild Wild West. The new law stops just short of putting
targets on the backs of undocumented persons. Teachers are still required
to interrogate schoolchildren about their immigration status. People of faith, Good
Samaritans and family members are now felons if they knowingly drive 5
undocumented children to the store, the doctor or Vacation Bible School,.
The Republican legislators (and they were all Republicans) must have laughed all the way to the golf games waiting for them back in their districts. They think they won.
Just because they were sitting at the front of the bus, they think they were driving.
Little do they know that they have created their own worst nightmare. Their efforts to rid Alabama of ethnic diversity has backfired on them, bringing forth a multicultural, bilingual movement that would not have emerged in Alabama for another 50 years were it not for HB 56 and its new evil twin, HB 658. Legislators' wrongs have dared people to claim their rights as human beings. Republican efforts to divide have united a new People -- brown, black, and white -- who lock arms and sing, "We Are One Family, One Alabama." Lawmakers' fear of change is no match for this new People's determination not to go back to Alabama's old days of hatred and shame.
Alabama's new hate laws were written expressly to terrorize people so irreversibly that they would flee the state. Some did. Others hid inside their homes like Jesus' disciples locked inside the upper room, huddled in fear of what the authorities might do to them. But instead of being driven out by vicious legislation, Latino leaders have emerged in 22 communities across the state to stand up for the human and civil rights of their people.
The Republican legislators (and they were all Republicans) must have laughed all the way to the golf games waiting for them back in their districts. They think they won.
Just because they were sitting at the front of the bus, they think they were driving.
Little do they know that they have created their own worst nightmare. Their efforts to rid Alabama of ethnic diversity has backfired on them, bringing forth a multicultural, bilingual movement that would not have emerged in Alabama for another 50 years were it not for HB 56 and its new evil twin, HB 658. Legislators' wrongs have dared people to claim their rights as human beings. Republican efforts to divide have united a new People -- brown, black, and white -- who lock arms and sing, "We Are One Family, One Alabama." Lawmakers' fear of change is no match for this new People's determination not to go back to Alabama's old days of hatred and shame.
Alabama's new hate laws were written expressly to terrorize people so irreversibly that they would flee the state. Some did. Others hid inside their homes like Jesus' disciples locked inside the upper room, huddled in fear of what the authorities might do to them. But instead of being driven out by vicious legislation, Latino leaders have emerged in 22 communities across the state to stand up for the human and civil rights of their people.
How
were they affected by a year of battling against hate? In their own
words: They learned to overcome fear. What perfect poetic justice: when lawmakers
used fear as a weapon, it backfired. They taught their own victims to stand
strong against fear and intimidation, how to work together, how to win allies,
how to move legislators.
When
the Legislature opened in February, many Latinos, regardless of citizenship
status, were barred from visiting Statehouse galleries and offices of their
legislators. By the time it closed in May, a new reality existed. Crowds chanted,
“The State House is Our House,” and in doing so, they took on the responsibilities
of citizenship by standing against unjust, immoral laws at no small risk.
There are relics in the Legislature who may
choose to stand in the State House or the school house door, staving off change as long as they can,
and they'll end up right where George Wallace did — with the door of
history slammed in their faces.
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