VOTE TO BOYCOTT ARIZONA PRESENTS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIANS WITH A NOT-REALLY-ALL-THAT HARDSHIP
By Steve Lowery
The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to ban most city travel to Arizona as a way to protest that state’s tough new immigration law. It was an extraordinary step, which the council has taken only a couple times before, including once to protest South Africa’s then-apartheid policies. Of course, Arizona’s new law isn’t apartheid or racist—Arizonans have been very clear about that—so be on notice, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Aryan visitors, lest you be caught without your papürvügens when asked to produce them.
The council’s move, generally lauded locally, was met with anger and cries for retribution in Arizona. In the comments section of an LA Times story about the vote, one Arizonan said he immediately cancelled a business trip that would have brought 202 people into LAX, leaving locals scurrying to figure out how the state will go on without 200 Arizonans in rented Ford Focuses unclear on the concept of merging while accelerating.
This could devolve into something very nasty between the two states—Californians not going to Arizona, Arizonans not visiting California—in what figures to be called a “boycott” in Arizona and a “win-win” in the Golden State.
I was always under the impression that the only reason anyone lived in Arizona was to be close to California—after all, the state’s motto is “Arizona: California-Adjacent!” So Arizonans will be giving up the Pacific Ocean, Disneyland and Yosemite and Sequoia national parks.
Californians, meanwhile, will miss out on the spectacular Grand Canyon, crippling heat and scores of frustrated tourists angrily trying to convince their children that the Grand Canyon is “spectacular” and not “just a big hole, can we go?!”

















20 Comments
“leaving locals scurrying to figure out how the state will go on without 200 Arizonans in rented Ford Focuses unclear on the concept of merging while accelerating”
brilliant!
Closing paragraph is the best. I would’ve extended it: “just a big hole, can we go…to Disneyland?!”..in California!
Man, I hate it when the readers write my stuff better than me. Damn you, DWR! (If that is your real name)
Mope not, Mr. “Lowery”. My little coup de trump against your vast creative talent is as significant as a single diamondback in the vast Sonoran Desert.
See, right there! You just did it again!
Oh, for Pedro’s sake, just keep up the good write fight, “Steve”. Never surrender!
I’ll be boycotting Los Angeles for boycotting a state that has its law enforcement officers abide by and enforce federal law. Where are the calls to boycott the federal government? It is the federal statutes that are being enforced? By boycotting a state enforcing federal law the City Of Los Angeles, and San Francisco, Denver, etc, are stating they are in support of illegal immigration and the crime and havoc it wrecks on Arizona and other border states, such as California. I look forward to my next vacation in Arizona and will spend no money in any city that engages in one of these boycotts.
By the way, great that the LA City Council which has driven the city over the cliff financially is focussing on deriding a state enforcing federal law while refusing to solve its fiscal problems. Shows the incredible shallowness of their intellect.
For those of you who, like our esteemed Attorney General of the United States, have not read the bill but feel educated enough to comment here is the link:
http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf
I’ll take the Grand Canyon over Disneyland any day too.
Dennis boycotting L.A. Sounds like another win-win for the locals.
there really isnt a downside!
What is this? Something to take our mind (for those who still have one) off the accelerating decay of California public services, including public welfare, medical and emergency services and especially public education?
I am no fan of the new Arizone law, and I understand from my few contacts among progressives there that they have been mobilized to object.
But talk the pot calling the kettle black. California mobilizes for serving its citizens by stumbling into the biggest state budget crisis we have ever seen pointing fingers at AZ? Check out Arnie’s budget for next year. Cuts, cuts, cuts.
Are you the “Dennis” (mortgage guy-subprime loans) who used to scribble for gordons phony news site?
Than I.
Personally, I am quite torn over boycotting Arizona. I have family there. Kind of sad how this controversy is destined to split families apart.
Someone told me this once, thought I would share…
An analogy: foster homes have a limit on the number of children they can take in and care for. Otherwise the foster home is ineffective, any difficulties don’t get the proper amount of attention, there are too many to care for and not enough finances to meet everyone’s needs resulting in problems and improper care for everyone.
Immigration is like foster care…your state can only take in some effectively. At some point it becomes overwhelming, like the foster home with too many children.
I would never boycott a state that enforced immigration laws. Nor would I one that didn’t.
That our country, (not to say the whole world) is going to hell in a hand basket is not going to thwart my efforts to have a good time.
http://www.longbeachpolitics.homestead.com
Steve, you might remember Nativo Lopez
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/nativo-lopez-does-he-speak-for-mapa-and-mexican-americans
Opposing Views
Nativo Lopez: Does He Speak for MAPA and Mexican Americans?
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On May 20, 2010, Nativo Lopez, President of the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), former MEChA organizer, ousted Santa Ana School Board …
Citizen Journalist Quote of the Day — Hurricanes, Oil Spills and the Next Korean War
“Life is all about sticking around to see what is going to happen next.”
(Source: Author Unknown)
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