Perhaps I shouldn't ask the question, "What's a mother to do?" since I'm a father not a mother.
However, a male colleague used to ask that question not as a query but as an expression of frustration as to what anyone can do in response to the conditions and state of the world today.
The short answer is that a mother, or father, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, cousin, can't do very much if anything but it's nevertheless fulfilling to speculate on what we should do under certain sets of circumstances.
Would that we average Joes and Josies could do things, change things, or reverse things that, in our inexpert and humble opinions, called for doing, changing, or reversing based on a long-lost American skill and capacity, the application of common sense.
"Mother's Commonsensical Solutions" will no doubt be attacked as everything from nonsensical and simplistic to naive and stupid but asi es la vida, tough apples.
Readers are invited to offer better ideas.
Mother's Problem Number Two: Saving Sheriff Joe For those unacquainted with Sheriff Joe, i.
e.
, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, he's the law enforcement official most hated by the Mexican drug cartels who have put a million dollar bounty on his head because he's afflicted with an odd quirk: He insists on doing his job and enforcing the immigration laws of the State of Arizona and the United States of America.
Sheriff Joe is also the law enforcement official most hated by the Obama administration and Eric Holder's Justice Department who haven't, as yet, put a bounty on his head and instead harass and threaten him for the same reason, his odd quirk about doing his job and enforcing the immigration laws of the State of Arizona and the United States of America.
It's as presumptuous of me to suggest saving the tough and independent Sheriff Joe as it is for the DOJ to suggest he cease and desist from repeatedly rounding up Mexican and other illegal aliens in his state and incarcerating them in his tent prison.
There they are decked out in pretty pink garb, served adequate but far from sumptuous meals, and expected to behave as prisoners, not as indulged guests of the state.
It's presumptuous but I'll do it anyway.
Long a burr under the saddles of everyone from the ACLU to La Raza to every other illegal alien rights group in the nation, Sheriff Joe, the self-described "America's toughest sheriff," was issued a second ultimatum last week insisting he "comply with a Justice Department request to explain his office's 'operations, policies and procedures' involving the arrest and detention of Hispanics.
" Apparently not grasping the meaning of the word "ultimatum," the DOJ once again alleges civil rights violations by Sheriff Joe and his department, involving arresting and detaining Hispanics in Maricopa County, which includes the city of Phoenix.
Just in case the accused law enforcers did not appreciate the seriousness of the charges, the DOJ spelled out its threat: "If we do not receive clear and specific agreement for all of the [requests], we will conclude that completion cannot be achieved by voluntary means.
" (At stake for Maricopa County is all federal funding which accounts for 5% of its budget and works out to three to four million dollars for the sheriff department annually.
) Translation: We will sue you even though an attorney for the Sheriff's Office avers that office has already complied and that DOJ investigators "have in their possession reams and reams and reams of materials on what we would speculate is the thrust of their investigation:" http://tiny.
cc/k1nns Can we all say harassment? Ramping up that harassment a few notches, a week after the last ultimatum, the DOJ, which seems to enjoy suing states and agencies for enforcing laws the federal government fails to enforce, filed suit in federal court against Sheriff Joe and the Maricopa County Sheriff's office to force compliance.
At the root of the federal complaint are allegations that Sheriff Joe utilizes that bugaboo of racial profiling to nab criminals.
Arpaio denies the allegation, contending that "people are stopped if deputies have probable cause to believe they've committed crimes and that it's only afterward that deputies find many of them are illegal immigrants.
" As for the efficacy of its law enforcement techniques, "The Sheriff's Office has said half of the 1,032 people arrested in the sweeps have been illegal immigrants.
" For the purposes of simplifying that number for bureaucratic minds, it means that Maricopa County deputies detained, arrested, and jailed some 516 illegal, criminal aliens as a result of its sweeps.
In addition to removing them from the streets, perhaps preserving the lives and property of Arizona citizens, perhaps catching a few terrorists in the bargain, perhaps inhibiting the drug trade and human trafficking, Sheriff Joe's policies represent simple enforcement of federal law.
Obama, Holder and Company can't very well have that, now could they? It embarrasses the feds no end and annoys the Hispanic community and all those millions of future Democrat voters nationwide, those illegals for whom the administration is planning amnesty and, ultimately, citizenship and, soon after that, registration to vote as true-blue Dems.
Not that Sheriff Joe needs my support and advice but I'm offering it anyway.
Mother's Solution: Arpaio is not only protecting the people within his jurisdiction but protecting the people of the United States since, once illegal aliens are permitted to roam free in Maricopa, they are free to migrate anywhere they wish in the country, taking along with them the crime and drugs they have already visited upon Arizona.
He should continue what he's doing as far as law enforcement is concerned, as long as he and his department are acting within the law.
As for the federal lawsuit, he should follow the example of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and resist any further compliance beyond the cooperation he has already extended.
As with Arizona's immigration enforcement law, SB1070, Arpaio will probably lose, in which case America loses.
We will, however, have gained a moral victory in asserting the right of a state to protect its border and thereby preserve its moral and territorial integrity as a state.
America losing doesn't ever seem to bother Obama, et al.
Across the board, the president revels in America apologizing, losing, kowtowing, bowing, acting subservient.
However, despite the expense in fighting the DOJ-that department's chief weapon of intimidation-I'm guessing Sheriff Joe will resist our federal government's efforts to stop him from our federal government's own laws.
So, for what it's worth, You go, Joe! It's a shitty job but SOMEONE has to do it! To the reader: Tough as he is, Sheriff Joe could always use some moral support.
That support can be extended via snail mail to Maricopa County Sheriff's Department, 100 West Washington, Suite 1900, Phoenix, AZ 85003.
Or contact him via email at the department's website.
Tell him "Mother" sent you.
Don't bother contacting President Obama, AG Holder, or the Justice Department.
They've already chosen sides in this battle and it's not America's side.