Razzing Arizona

Travel writers aren't known for our ethics. If we aren't cavorting on some beach, we're scarfing down lamb chops at some fancy restaurant.

But every once in awhile, we get to flex our moral muscles. And I've just come from my workout at the ethical gym.

I started pumping iron when Arizona's governor signed what's called "the most restrictive immigration bill in the country." It makes anyone with brown skin prove to the police they belong in Arizona. And makes Arizona police, make 'em prove it.

Also heading for the governor's signature is a second bill. If it passes, presidential candidates must prove that they were born in the USA. So, come next election, Arizonans may not be able to vote for President Obama, since nothing will ever convince the unconvincable that he's not a commie-Muslim from Kenya.

Most of my friends agree that the law and the bill are nasty, bigoted, and more 1910 than 2010. But since my friends don't live in Arizona, they figure there's not much they can do about it.

But I can. I'm a travel writer.

My wife and I did a YouTube video and a major magazine article on Arizona's Sonoran Desert. We were gonna do more.

But since the governor signed that anti-Latino bill, we ain't gonna write no more, no more.

Look, we're not perfect, and we don't demand perfection. We don't entirely agree with the politics of any place. But we will not support injustice, bigotry, and fanaticism's lies.

We wouldn't travel write about apartheid South Africa. We won't travel write about Burma. And now, we won't help entice visitors to Arizona. Not while it bans the president from the ballot unless he convinces some politician that he's born here. Not while it requires dark-skinned citizens to perpetually prove they belong here.

We ain't gonna write no more and we just pulled our YouTube video.

With a Perspective, this is Jules Older.