This bill only mirrors the federal one and even goes further in it’s protection against descrimination. But the left doesn’t care about the truth. Ideology is all that matters to them even if it destroys this great country that gives them so much yet that they seem to hate so. This bill finally brings some sensibility to the immigration problem. It’s a great first step. The poll a few weeks ago on the Red Rock News website said 70% of Sedona’s residents support the bill, a clear majority, yet why isn’t that reflected in the council?

This isn’t immigration. We are turning into a third world country. I see people coming into this country that don’t respect it’s laws, that don’t want to learn English, that drop out of education and seem to care little about what a Republic is and becoming part of that. That don’t care about personal responsibility and are all to eager to take advantage of our naive entitlement system.

That’s what is different with this immigration than the immigration of the past. In the past immigrants merged with American culture and made America better. They brought their own unique diversity and added to the whole but they respected the culture that was already here unlike what I see happening today. So many of the immigrants now don’t care about that, they want to surplant their culture on to ours and I’m tired of it.

When I go to a foreign country I should be respectful of their laws and abide by them as it’s their country and I’m a guest. They built up that culture before I was there and I have no right to come in and change it. If I’m not willing to learn their language or respect their culture I shouldn’t be there. Why is that so much to ask in return when coming into America especially if you do it illegally? A liberal would say this is racist. It’s fact and you can’t solve a problem if you don’t recognize it first. The left lives in an ideological fantasy land and doesn’t care about the real world and will have us all suffer the consequences for that naive and myopic way of looking at things.

Arizona is spending billions on immigration matters. This isn’t sustainable. We can’t take care of the whole world. By letting Mexico be dependent on the US you are cheating them of the experience of rising forth and correcting the corruption in their own country, of improving their economic situation so they can be self sustaining and not dependent on the US. We had that in our past and it’s not right to cheat Mexico from the same experience as it is what is needed for them to evolve into a more democratic state and to gain a more prosperous and stable economic system.

We are fine with legal immigration, it helped make this country but at a rate that is sustainable without placing an undue burden on the culture already here, including many legal immigrants. We want those coming into America to have an attitude of self-responsibility and not entitlement We want the people that have respected our immigration laws and have waited years to come to this country to be the priority. They have earned it and respected our laws and show they deserve their citizenship first.

Listen to what the people of Sedona are saying council. We are in the clear majority with the rest of Arizona and we support this bill and our governor.

The governement can look anywhere it wants but it can’t look everywhere at once. Fact is, it all boils down to the cop on the street and his/her reasonableness. Their discretion or lack of will determine if Sedona will be known as a “racist” city (regardless if it is not true) or not. The media has run away with this. People are sheep. The flock is panicked.

Also, the government never really had to worry about getting court approval for wire taps and such because in the real world those papers are not worth the ink on them and whoever is in power can do what they want no matter what the law says.

It was when those wire taps were made legal on the books that everyone freaked out on privacy issues. Sure law enfoercement has been doing it all along as you say. Now, its on the books and people are reacting. Nothing’s really changed. It’s just out in the face of the public.

Same thing with concealed weopons. Criminals couldn’t give a hoot about the law. They carried guns with impunity. Now its legal. Big deal.

Discourse is healthy. Good to see people commenting and sharing their points of view.

At least the three members out of a City Council of seven showed the good sense to limit their authority by simply deferring the issue to a future council agenda.

At a time when many of us are hoping for intervention by Governor Brewer to convince ADOT that a “river of lights” on West SR89A isn’t in the best interest of Sedona, one of the State’s major scenic attractions, how wise would it be to oppose this highly controversial measure?

Remember, newly elected council members, you all pledged to remain steadfast in your positions to repeal ADOT’s determination to install the lights.

Given the opportunity to remain neutral, why not do so and take the middle road on this one?

This commentary is not about this writer’s personal politics, nor yours. It’s about Sedona’s fate. National and Arizona polls are showing, consistently, that between 64% and 73% of Americans support Arizona’s SB1070 while the great majority of the people in Sedona who just voted for you support the new law as well. By allowing the Surber’s to import 70% of the anti-SB1070 demonstrators from outside Sedona on May 1, and by allowing Spanish-speaking public forum speakers to denigrate, ad hominem, our Governor and the nation’s most respected Sheriff at last night’s Council meeting, and by allowing Councilor Surber to commandeer the City’s Council Chambers tonight to conduct another “perceived-as-orchestrated” demonstration inside City Hall, you are causing a groundswell of anger to rise amongst the general populace of our town just when you’ve been given the opportunity to become Sedona’s most effective, and possibly, most respected Mayor.

I have, while trying to reason with him privately to no avail, sent pictures to Councilor Surber of California high school students in the process of taking down their school’s U.S. flag and replacing it with a Mexican national flag while re-appending the US flag below the Mexican flag upside down. People across the U.S. have seen these pictures on the Internet. Do you think that the students of Sedona Red Rock High School haven’t seen these pictures (as well as their parents)? I have sent to Councilor Surber, privately, pictures of Arizona anti-SB1070 demonstrators carrying picket signs promising to “kill Arizona police officers” until their demands are met. These pictures have been posted on various police fraternal organization websites around the country and in Arizona. Do you actually believe your own City police officers haven’t seen these pictures and aren’t wondering what you’re doing supporting the anti-SB1070 demonstrators and Councilor Surber?

Worse yet, however, have you given any serious thought, whatsoever, to the huge number of the national and Arizona supporters of SB1070 who are tourists and potential Sedona second-home buyers who will boycott Sedona once this City joins litigation against the state. Even our two highly popular Senators are publicly supporting the new law. The only reason Tucson is supporting litigation against the state is that it does get a great many Mexican national tourists, but Sedona does not. Flagstaff succumbed to its collegiate community while Sedona has no such influential community. Otherwise, no other Mayor in Arizona, including Phil Gordon of Phoenix, after he saw the handwriting on the wall, is willing to join this absurd proposed lawsuit. If you, in Sedona’s behalf, pursue this course of joining those two cities in litigation against the state, you will hang Sedona out to dry all by itself! You are about to cause a catastrophic hit to Sedona’s all-ready seriously ailing tourism and real estate industries if you continue to pursue your current course of action. Meanwhile, you will be responsible for further dividing this small town just when it doesn’t need further division. This is a no-win, loss-only probability, scenario for Sedona. What can Sedona possibly hope to accomplish by joining in this lawsuit? Doing so only presents this town with a downside. There is no upside…period! Why are you putting your newly elected Council in this tenuous situation? What are you thinking? This is a battle to which Sedona must stay on the sidelines. Your tack should be to explain to the public that you personally, the new Council, and Staff cannot involve our City in this litigation because of the risk to its tourism and real estate industries and its own placid character. Neither your personal feelings on this issue, nor anyone else’s, should enter into your personal decision making process. Please reconsider your current chosen course of action.

J. Rick Normand