Immigration

When are more Oklahoma state leaders going to speak out against the politics of hate and intolerance practiced by Brent Rinehart, Randy Terrill and Sally Kern?

Each one of these local politicians has brought a tremendous amount of negative publicity to the state and, unfortunately, will continue to do so unless more state leaders speak up against their agenda to use hate and scapegoating to further their careers. These three Oklahoma City area residents make the state's residents seem like ignorant, mean-spirited hicks to the rest of the nation.

All three have been in the news again recently.

Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Rinehart recently self-published a comic book he plans on using as campaign material. The crude, self-written comic book spews basic clichéd hatred at gay people for advocating the mythical and tired phrase “homosexual agenda” and attacks the local sheriff and state’s attorney general. Both CNN and ABC news have covered the Rinehart comic book story as one of those typical “can-believe-how-these-hicks-think?” stories. It is a continuing saga. The comic book has received wide coverage on Internet sites as well. Adding to the controversy is the fact the Republican Rinehart, who represents District 2, faces a trial on felony charges alleging he illegally funded his 2004 campaign. He says the charges are politically motivated, but the entire Rinehart spectacle seems particularly trashy.

State Rep. Randy Terrill, a Republican from Moore, who brought the state the nation’s strictest anti-immigration laws in the nation, is facing recent legal questions about his 2006 bankruptcy. Now a bankruptcy trustee is calling for the case to be reopened over the question of hidden assets, according to media reports. Many people face money problems in today’s terrible economy, for sure, but the bankruptcy and the recent questions about it raise obvious issues about Terrill’s motivation in sponsoring the draconian anti-illegal immigration measure. Did Terrill see the illegal immigration issue as extremely personal because of his money problems? Did he have an inappropriate axe to grind? Whatever the case, Terrill’s House Bill 1804 has brought the state a huge amount of negative national publicity. Many see Terrill's anti-illegal immigration efforts as primarily focused on Hispanic people. Certainly, the federal government has failed on the immigration issue primarily because of competing factions within the Republican Party, but Terrill’s bill makes Oklahomans seem intolerant and mean-spirited. Are you better off because of Terrill’s bill? Did you wages go up because of Terrill’s bill? The illegal immigration problem is a federal issue.

State Rep. Sally Kern, a Republican from west Oklahoma City, was recently stopped from carrying a pistol into the state Capitol. State troopers say it was an honest mistake and did not press charges, but one cannot help but wonder if an ordinary citizen would have been given the same treatment. Okay, go ahead and give gun-toting, gay-bashing Sally a pass on this one, but do not give her a pass on her previous widely reported statements that gay people are worse than terrorists. A video containing her outrageous comments about gay people was viewed by more than a million people. Kern’s remarks, Rinehart’s comic book and even gay-bashing comments by U.S. Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe continue to make Oklahoma seem intolerant and archaic.

There you have it: Rinehart, Terrill, Kern, all Republicans, all from the Oklahoma City area. These three people continue to hurt Oklahoma’s national image. Meanwhile, decent progressive-minded people are forced to leave the state in droves. Rinehart, Terrill and Kern are driving intelligent people away from the state. Where is the state's leadership?

The answer is to vote all three out of office, but the state’s corporate, political and educational leadership needs to get more active in discrediting the narrow views of intolerance and hate.

The continuing saga of House Bill 1804 here opens up the question again about the disparate interests of rank-and-file Republicans and their moneyed leadership, and it foretells a massive GOP schism.

HB 1804 is the anti-illegal immigration law passed in Oklahoma last year. Some contend it is the strictest such legislation in the country. Sponsored by state Rep. Randy Terrill, a Moore Republican, the bill denies illegal immigrants state services, and it also requires state businesses verify their employees can legally work in this country.

The anti-illegal immigration initiative is a national platform of so-called law-and-order Republicans, many of whom feel undocumented workers get a free ride on taxes and drive down wages for everyone. The GOP moneyed interests, which has always made up or influenced the major leadership of the party, want a pool of workers they can exploit and pay low wages.

Consequently, HB 1804 is a microcosm of the tenuous relationship between working class and rich Republicans.

Recently, those who represent the moneyed Republicans were able to get a judge to block the enforcement of the work eligibility verification process contained in the legislation. U.S. District Judge Robin Cauthron blocked the employee verification process, which could conceivably enable companies to continue to employ illegal immigrants.

Those who brought the suit against the law included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries. Certainly, the two chambers are widely known as pro-corporation, Republican bastions. Even the most conservative newspaper in the country, The Oklahoman, has criticized Terrill’s bill.

The state, as a matter of routine, appealed the decision to the 10th U.S. Court of Appeals. It now has until July 3 to outline its case, according to media reports.

So it is Republican versus Republican in a classic lawsuit that shows how the vast majority of GOP party members—the law-and-order types—support national leaders who do not share their world reality and will never do so.

Meanwhile, some Democratic Party leaders have long advocated a common sense approach to the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in this country. Recognizing both the problem of illegal immigration and the gargantuan task of arresting and deporting millions of people, some Democratic leaders have proposed a federal temporary guest worker program that levies fines and other penalties. It calls on better border protection. The point is to bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows.

Actually, law-and-order Republicans have far more in common on this issue with most Democrats, who recognize illegal immigration is a problem and want to do something realistic about it. The Republican corporate interests are perfectly fine with the way things are because they can exploit employees and conceivably keep wages down. Terrill’s bill and others like it are easy legal targets because attorneys can argue the legislations' sweeping provisions conflict with federal laws and mandates.

In the end, the story of HB 1804 shows all the obvious contradictions and hypocrisy inherent in the GOP these days. This idea of an emerging Republican populism among working class Americans has always been problematic and complicated. Rich people still run the show in the GOP, and they always will. Will this obvious schism, which HB 1804 has brought into the open once again, dilute the GOP’s election strength this year as the failed neoconservative experiment comes to an end?

(Oklahoma City residents should vote today--December 11--to approve an $835 million bond issue. The bond issue will not raise taxes and will continue in the tradition of the MAPS project, which revitalized Oklahoma City. Here is a site that outlines the issue’s 11 projects. Approval of this bond issue is urgently needed if Oklahoma City is to continue its remarkable upswing in recent years.)

(Well, I wus lookin' everywhere for them gol-darned Reds.
I got up in the mornin' 'n' looked under my bed,
Looked in the sink, behind the door,
Looked in the glove compartment of my car.
Couldn't find 'em . . .
I wus lookin' high an' low for them Reds everywhere,
I wus lookin' in the sink an' underneath the chair.
I looked way up my chimney hole,
I even looked deep inside my toilet bowl.
They got away . . .from Bob Dylan’s 1970 Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues)

(With apologies to Jonathan Swift, author of the 1729 “A Modest Proposal”…Kurt Hochenauer)

Now that the John Birch Society, the longtime conspiracy organization, has been mainstreamed in Oklahoma by the anti-illegal immigration folks and the corporate media here, we have the green light to look for innovative ways to deal with the issue of “anchor babies.”

A Saturday rally in support of newly passed House Bill 1804 was sponsored by the Birchers, according to a media report, which claimed 50 people attended it. HB 1804 is Oklahoma’s new anti-illegal immigration law, which is considered the strictest such law in the country. The media report did not mention if those who spoke at the rally, which included Sam Antonio, JBS national immigration spokesman, referred to anchor babies. What we do know is that the report did not refer to the JBS’s controversial and, some say, racist history. Thus, we can assume JBS is now considered just another mainstream organization by the power structure here.

Anchor babies, a pejorative term used by those opposed to illegal immigrants, refers to children from other countries born in the United States. These children receive automatic U.S. citizenship. These babies supposedly serve as anchors for future legal immigration of their family members. Of course, the babies cannot sponsor the immigration of anyone until they are 21, but that does not stop the anti-illegal immigration lobby from making it an issue. But now is no time for logic about the issue.

I have come up with a way to solve this issue in Oklahoma and improve the economy. Perhaps, the JBS and state Rep. Randy Terrill (R-Moore), who authored HB 1804, can take the lead role implementing this new plan. I suggest that instead of giving these children citizenship, we pass a bill in Oklahoma that would require the state to raise them as game for hunters. This could be part of “Son of 1804,” future legislation promised by Terrill that would crack down even further on illegal immigration.

I know what many of you are thinking: What type of sport would these children provide hunters who choose to participate during Anchor Baby Season?

The solution is obvious: We simply raise these children to run fast and be experts at finding hiding places on designated hunting grounds and reserves in Oklahoma. We could provide for the different skill levels of hunters by grouping the anchor babies by age group. Consequently, hunting two-year-old children would take less skill than hunting sixteen-year-old children. The possibilities in age groupings and weapon choice are practically endless.

Since it has already been argued that children make “a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled ...” butchers would be available on anchor baby reserves to dress the hunters’ kills. Facilities would also be available for hunters who like to butcher their own. Taxidermists would be on site as well. Think about how much conversation and storytelling a mounted anchor baby trophy on your wall would create.

Hunters would have to pay special state fees and obtain licenses to hunt anchor babies, and this money would go to erect a fence around Oklahoma to keep out illegal immigrants and to hire hundreds of new law enforcement officers to patrol our borders. For example, law enforcement officers could establish permanent checkpoints on I-35 and I-40 and stop all cars coming into Oklahoma. People driving into the state—you, me, anyone—would have to produce documentation showing they are here legally. If not here legally, anyone over 21 would be imprisoned, tortured and deported. Those under 21 would be automatically sent to the hunting reserves.

Any leftover money would be spent on economic development programs for the state. These programs would be required to highlight the state’s innovative ways of solving illegal immigration: HB 1804, Son of 1804, Anchor Baby Season. Terrill and JBS spokespersons could be featured in state tourism advertisements.

Eventually, the sport of hunting anchor babies would die out here, of course, as fewer and fewer illegal immigrants make it inside Oklahoma to reproduce. But it solves the illegal immigrant issue here, and, if illegal immigration ever becomes a problem here again, we already have a system to deal with it.