Thursday, July 8, 2010Opinion

The Brownsville States-Graphic

page 4

The Brownsville States-Graphic(USPS ISSN 08909938) is published weekly by Haywood County Newspapers

L.L.C., 42 South Washington, P.O. Box 59, Brownsville TN 38012.

Periodicals postage paid at Brownsville, TN.POSTMASTER: Send address changes to

The Brownsville States-Graphic, P.O. Box 59, Brownsville, TN 38012

“A publication of American Hometown Publishing”DEADLINES:

News, Monday at Noon • Advertising, Monday at NoonClassifi ed Advertising, Monday at Noon

Society news, Monday at Noon Legals, Monday at Noon

SUBSCRIPTIONS (PER YEAR):Haywood County $35; In-state $42; Out-of-state $49

Communications with the newspaper

must include the author’s signature,

address and telephone number. All letters to the editor refl ect the opinions of the

writer and are not necessarily those of the newspaper. The newspaper is not responsible for

unsolicited material. We reserve the right to reject or shorten letter to the editor.

731-772-1172

BrownsvilleSTATES-GRAPHICSTATES-GRAPHIC

Scott Whaley,Editor & Publisher

Calvin Carter,Rebecca GrayStaff Writer

Sara Clark,Josh AndersonGraphic Design

Terry ThompsonSales Manager

Leticia OrozcoReceptionist

Vicky Fawcett,Office Manager

Scott Whaley,Editor & Publisher

Vicky Fawcett,Offi ce Manager

Terry ThompsonSales Manager

Ceree Peace PostonReceptionist

Calvin Carter,Staff Writer

Sara Clark,Graphic Design

Josh AndersonGraphic Design

Julie Pickard,Staff Writer

By 28th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Clayburn Peeples

All the news

Calvin's Corner

By Calvin Carter, Staff Writer

State vs. Federal State vs. FederalCalvin’s Corner

Lawsuits seem to be the flavor of choice these days, though many are quick to say that they donít like the taste of this kool-aid.

Haywood County, alone, seems to be suf-fering from a string of lawsuits or rumors of lawsuits lately, so much so that the county is con-sidering opening up a little town named Sue. No word yet if the court-house is going to be on the corner of June and Johnny.

Bad jokes aside, the latest lawsuit that’s taken me by surprise is actually nationwide. It’s the one involving the U.S. Justice Department and Arizo-na, over their recent im-migration law.

Arizona’s Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act has caused a lot of controversy, providing this country’s strictest anti-illegal immigration measure in quite some time.

The Justice Depart-ment is saying that Ari-zona’s immigration laws are a federal responsibil-ity, and that federal laws trump state statues. The department is hoping to stop the Arizona immi-gration law from taking effect.

While I can see that illegal immigration has been a huge problem for that state - harsh deserts have served as travel ground into the state from the south end - I do have to argue that it’s only going to cause a slew of civil rights related cases and racial profiling problems.

What was that sound you ask? Oh that was the sound of about thousand angry letters and emails flooding the office.

Before you decide to delete me as your Face-book friend, or tell me how wrong I am because of my youth instead of baking me cookies (I prefer chocolate chip if you’re wondering), hear me out.

This is not coming from a Democrat, Repub-lican, Obama Supporter, Anti-Obama supporter, Tea Party enthusiast, un-patriotic ne’re do well or whatever political label you feel you have to use in such a splintered cli-mate. This is just based on what I see and feel; just some 25-year-old guy who tries to see both sides of the coin.

I’m not at all saying that we donít have an il-legal immigration prob-

lem. I kind of feel that if you come to this country as an outsider, then you should go through the process of becoming le-gal. If I moved to Japan or England, I would expect to have to jump through a few hoops and hurdles to become a legal citizen. I would probably change quite a few things about our legalization process, but I get it. Heck, for ev-ery application on just about, well anything, I’m asked to fill out, there’s always a section that asks if I’m a citizen of this country. It’s pretty com-mon to me.

However, you’d have to be blind to not see that Arizona’s law opens the door to civil rights re-lated cases. And that it is also going to lead to some false accusations and major suing. Sure, there is a lot of legal jar-gon within the Bill to say prevent, anyone from being stopped and de-tained, just because of the color of their skin, it doesn’t mean however that it won’t happen.

The term that gets my attention on all this is “reasonable suspi-cion.” It all seems too vague and subjective to really be a fair basis. Re-ally, you’re just basing it on one’s perception and judgment. And history has shown me that can be dangerous when backed by power.

You’re talking to a guy that’s been shadowed around shopping malls, by security and walked out by a police officer, with two other friends, also black, just because

we looked suspicious. It’s a very scary expe-

rience, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

I’m not saying that every authority figure in power would oper-ate like that. But let’s not pretend that it won’t ever happen.

It will. This kind of thing always happens. It’s about inevitable as death and taxes.

And this is why I think Arizona is only setting itself up for some sue-happy trouble. Well, they already have. I never ex-pected the U.S. Justice Department to make the first move. But the way our laws are set up, the federal government usu-ally have the last say. I don’t agree with a lot of things our government does, but even I have to recognize that their pow-er tend to outweigh the state.

On the flip side, one could argue that the only reason that Arizona has chosen to even do this is because it feels that really the government’s enforcement hasn’t re-ally helped them. And in some cases, I could see that.

If you take anything away from this column, even if you agree with some my points or think I’m off my rocker, I think we can all agree that this isn’t a simple black and white issue. This has gray area written all over it.

Please feel free to tell me though, what do you think of all this? Should the government butt out? Why? Does Arizona de-serve to be sued?

“Oh look, Mommy, a real newspaper!” said my young daughter Grace, upon spying a Commercial Appeal rack outside a restaurant sev-eral weeks ago.

A “real newspaper.” I thought about her com-ment the other day when someone gave me an old Los Angeles Times, an edi-tion from February of the year 1960. That was the era of “real newspa-pers.”

Alas, those days are gone, and papers with the kind of influence ma-jor dailies once had are as dead as the dinosaurs. I guess you would have had to be alive at the time to know just how important newspapers were back then. Looking at that 50-year-old Los Angeles Times I was pain-fully reminded of how much we gave up when we put aside our news-papers and began turn-ing instead to the likes of Katie Couric and An-derson Cooper to tell us what we need to know.

Nineteen sixty was an election year, of course. The year, if fact, that John Kennedy won the presidency. In February of that year, however, he was just one of several candidates vying for the democratic nomination. The Times covered them all, and I was amazed at how balanced their coverage seemed to be. In that day’s issue there was a long article about Lyndon Johnson, one of a series of profiles on the candidates called, “Po-tential Presidents.” An-other article reported on the four-day fundraising trip to the state just end-ed by Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey’s supporters, reported the paper, had “responded with an out-pouring of checks,” so many, in fact, that unof-ficial reports tallied the contributions at more than $10,000, barely the price of a single ticket to some of today’s tonier political fund-raises.

Another candidate, Sen. Wayne Morse, of Or-

egon, had just announced that he would challenge Sen. Jack Kennedy in the upcoming Maryland pri-mary.

Still another candidate, Sen. Stuart Symington, of Missouri, made the news by threatening to release “secret” informa-tion regarding the Soviet Union’s missile capabili-ties. The democrats that year planned to run on a national defense issue, and a claimed “missile gap” would be a major campaign issue.

Outgoing president, Dwight Eisenhower, had hastily planed a three-day visit to the “huge missile test center” at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The trip, his advisors as-sured everyone, had no connection at all to the democrats’ claims that we were behind the Rus-sians in military defense.

The man Eisenhower had twice defeated for the presidency, Adlai Ste-venson, had just the pre-vious day departed for a tour of Latin America. Stevenson claimed not to be a candidate, but said he would accept the nomination if were of-fered.

One of his strong supporters, the widow of Franklin Roosevelt, made the news when the bus in which she was traveling was forced off the road in a snowstorm. Ms. Roosevelt, who had been scheduled to speak in West Virginia, took the train back to New York.

In congress, civil rights voting legislation was blocked once again, and as usual in that era, by democrats. The republi-can leadership, however, refused to give up, and promised to continue the fight.

Across the world, the government of Jordan gave a group of Christian archeologists permission to enter the country in search of the ancient cit-ies of Sodom and Gomor-rah. The French govern-ment announced it was sending more troops to Algeria.

Salk polio vaccina-tions were scheduled across the city the fol-lowing week, relieving moms and dads of what was once one of parent-hood’s greatest fears.

Newspaper advertis-ing, said an article in that day’s paper, had set an all time record in 1959, and I believe it. The Mon-day issue I was reading was absolutely loaded with ads for everything from women’s girdles to ground beef. Ground beef, by the way, could be bought that week for 39 cents a pound. T-bone steaks were $1.09, and chuck roast 49 cents.

You could get your shirt laundered and pressed for 18 cents. A new set of Goodyear tires for your car could be had for $63.80. If you wanted whitewalls, it would be $4.00 more per tire.

All this, and a lot more information, was in a sin-gle day’s issue of that pa-per, and for much of that information, the record of it having happened exists no place else on earth. Something to think about as we watch news reports on television of one paper after another going to press for the fi-nal time.

Today, as almost all of the giant metro newspa-pers are either dead or dying, there is more news than ever, and there is ac-tually more reporting of it; there are even televi-sion and radio networks that fill the air that report nothing but news.

But that’s where all that news goes, into the air, and how you gonna find it 50 years from now? As the old saying goes, the spoken word will fly away, but the written word, is here to stay.

Thank goodness for the newspapers of the past. Think hard about what we are going to do without them in the fu-ture.

Because right now, there’s nothing to take their place.

The Brownsville States-Graphic(USPS ISSN 08909938) is published weekly by Haywood County Newspapers

L.L.C., 42 South Washington, P.O. Box 59, Brownsville TN 38012.

Periodicals postage paid at Brownsville, TN.POSTMASTER: Send address changes to

The Brownsville States-Graphic, P.O. Box 59, Brownsville, TN 38012

“A publication of American Hometown Publishing”DEADLINES:

News, Monday at Noon • Advertising, Monday at NoonClassifi ed Advertising, Monday at Noon

Society news, Monday at Noon Legals, Monday at Noon

SUBSCRIPTIONS (PER YEAR):Haywood County $35; In-state $42; Out-of-state $49

Communications with the newspaper

must include the author’s signature,

address and telephone number. All letters to the editor refl ect the opinions of the

writer and are not necessarily those of the newspaper. The newspaper is

not responsible for unsolicited material. We reserve the right to reject or shorten letter to the editor.

731-772-1172

BrownsvilleSTATES-GRAPHICSTATES-GRAPHIC

Scott Whaley,Editor & Publisher

Calvin Carter,Rebecca GrayStaff Writer

Sara Clark,Josh AndersonGraphic Design

Terry ThompsonSales Manager

Leticia OrozcoReceptionist

Vicky Fawcett,Office Manager

Scott Whaley,Editor & Publisher

Vicky Fawcett,Offi ce Manager

Terry ThompsonSales Manager

Ceree Peace PostonReceptionist

Calvin Carter,Staff Writer

Sara Clark,Graphic Design

Matt GarrettGraphic Design

Julie Pickard,Staff Writer