Let’s Hear It For the Heroes: Speaking Truth to Power One “NO” at a Time
Yesterday, an amazing thing happened here in Arizona. My half of Arizona, which, as I’ve mentioned before, is more purple than red.
Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier said this:
“From a public-policy perspective, I have concerns about local law enforcement being engaged in proactive immigration enforcement. It’s really not the job of local law enforcement to be engaged in that activity.”
And this:
“So the idea that you would seal the border off, no one comes across, is really not realistic for an economy such as in Arizona that relies so heavily on transnational trade.”
Now, both articles stress that Napier’s concerns are more about budget restraints. But I’m not so sure.
As I read his remarks, I realized that Napier was saying “NO” more effectively — and cleverly — than some might think. Let’s break it down.
He’s a man who wields some real power in this stubborn state. He’s on the front lines of the immigration issue. And he knows that the notorious Sheriff Arpaio lost the last election for doing pretty much what Trump is asking his deputies to do.
He also knows that despite that loss, this is still Arizona where an awful lot of people are on the Trump side of this issue. Hell, they’re on the Trump side of most issues. Yesterday, I wound up driving behind a big white truck with “WHITE LIVES MATTER” in big white letters on its rear window.
Zonies don’t do “subtle.”
So Napier didn’t throw down the gauntlet. He didn’t express concern about the lives that hang in the balance though I’m sure he’s seen that up close and personal. He expressed fiscal concerns.
Others in law enforcement have expressed fiscal concerns when faced with being forced to arrest and deport. Concerns usually followed by appeals for more federal assistance.
Napier’s statements are different. He is worried that he doesn’t have the resources to do what he’s being asked to do, but he says he’s also worried that the local economy will suffer if we “seal the border off.”
He’s talking manpower, money issues, the types of concerns that even the White Lives Matter guy might rally behind. Well, probably not, but he wouldn’t put Napier on his shit list for a statement like that. In fact, if Napier could back that up with some kind of proof that WLM guy might have to put off buying another gun for that rack in back if the economy tanks, well…
You get it now? Of course you do. A few days ago, I posted links to a couple of articles that teach you how to do things like that.
Napier’s cagier approach might not appeal to many in the Resistance. But I think we could take a lesson from it.
Because sooner or later, we will have to add dialog and coalition building to our game plan. Maybe reaching out, first, to the folks who weren’t all that proud about voting for Trump and then to the ones who voted for Trump in a fit of personal pique — the ones who aren’t really married to the guy. As a practice run before we wade right into true Trumpster territory.
And along the way, we’ll have to figure out what’s going on beneath the words we hear and how to talk to that.
Napier speaks “Zonie” fluently. And that old “think globally, act locally” thing? He’s got that down, too.
He’s a sheriff in a relatively rural county in Arizona who said “NO.” And maybe a few more sheriffs in a lot of other little counties right down here on the border will suddenly get brave enough to say “NO,” too. In their own ways. Based on what they know about the folks they live and work with everyday.
As Trump continues to say he’s all about “states’ rights” and letting locals make their own decisions, while stealthily issuing new “enforcement policies” forcing locals to do what he really wants them to do, it will be the “little guys” on the front line who’ll have to do the right thing.
That’s not just the Napiers of this world, BTW. That’s you and me and, Lord help us, yes, the dude with White Lives Matter on the rear window of his truck, too.
Okay, I don’t think he’d hear me no matter what language I was speaking. But he might give me points for trying. Or just having the nerve to try.
What language do you need to learn?
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