"Invading Hordes"

“And he’s already got anchor babies with him!”

   Sure, it’s usually pretty easy to point and laugh at the antics of other officials from other states about their easily manipulated hysteria, and kneejerk obsession over all things Obama. As of lately however, the mask has been slipping on the degree of bigotry these symptoms cover: their reactions to the Paris shootings and consequent attention to the Syrian refugee crisis, combined with scapegoating about immigration and fear of ”the other” has uncovered their underlying motive. This is sadly exemplified on both the national and statewide level as Fox faux politicians like Trump, Huckabee, Carson, to name a few, and “American” governors such as Texas’ Greg Abott.
   Shameful, but again, no real surprise given the sources of the recent pre-purging paranoia: it mostly stems from the Republicans. Fortunately there are a few exceptions on pushing back – including from nonprofit religious agencies tasked with aiding resettlement of refugees, and Christians Tired of Being Misrepresented - but it's unfortunate also that some “Democrats” have grabbed their proverbial pitchforks and joined the mob. As the editorial board of the New York Times succinctly put it: "History teaches that failing to hold a demagogue to account is a dangerous act" and whenever encountered it needs to be called out, and they need to be unequivocally held accountable.

   So we need to pay extra-special attention to it at the local level: to Alaska’s shame and disgust, it seems there are local representatives who will stop at nothing to promote their cowardice and hate. When Governor Walker issued an official statement to the effect that our state really has other, far more pressing concerns than entertaining a defense against imaginary “invading hordes” it touched off a round of righteously indignant posturing from politicians.

   Hence the panel which ran on the editorial page of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner last weekend was based on a released draft resolution by the Alaska Republican Party, on subsequent posts by the Alaska Senate Majority, and from Senator “Imam” Pete Kelly’s recent crusade against the Syrian refugees/terrorists that threaten to inundate Alaska. Apparently we must now draw a line in the snow. Which, given the legislative history + priorities of the Alaskan Republican Party, we'll surely be seeing an inevitable conflation of issues with the second amendment - not too far of a stretch given the Senator's alma mater.

   Besides the obvious hypocrisy of the only “danger to and/or fiscal burden on Alaskans” being the Alaska Republican party’s efforts to deny, obstruct or undermine health care, woman’s reproductive rights, Native voting rights, and crippling the environment, education (and education, education, more education, and education again) and the functionality of the state government in general, I have some additional questions.

For instance, what will we do about screening the almost two million tourists that annually visit Alaska? Will there be Sharia terrorist testing kits available in bar bathrooms to detect potential conspiracies? Just think of the nefarious impact a new wave of immigrants could have on our culture - like for example the local culinary scene. There already was a food truck selling shawarma at the Tanana Valley State Fair this summer, and one particularly popular establishment that peddles falafels has metastasized into a second location on campus, no doubt infecting impressionable, disaffected college students with insidiously tasty ethnic food. One need look no further for what happens after such an invasion than the fact that there are nineteen local Thai restaurants in the Interior – have all their employees been properly vetted? We must stop this before it spirals out of control and threatens our entire way of life - think of the children!

   I'm of the opinion we need to stand up and directly confront this astonishing display: it's wrong on so many levels - historically, spiritually, politically, culturally - that to let it go unanswered speaks to a loss of simple, basic humanity.  To those ends I’ll let the words by a few preeminent Alaskan bloggers address most of the salient points of this surreal campaign of hysteria: Wickersham’s Conscience (link here), Shannyn Moore’s ADN column (link here) and, tangentially related, Jim Wright of Stonekettle Station’s post (here).

Powerful words against a veritable blizzard of bullshit (hat-tip to Al for conveniently sourcing many of the reposted memes). In closing, a brief reminder from a scriptural authority on just what exactly constitutes sodomy in the biblical sense:

Ezekiel 16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.