Tucson Museum Board U-Turns, Defies Anti-Mexican Terrorists

An unfolding story in Tucson this and last week is a small window on the rising tensions in AZ over immigration. From the Arizona Republic:

The flags of the United States, Arizona and Mexico are going back up in front of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, in Tucson where they flew side by side for more than 50 years until last week.

Sophia Kaluzniacki, chair of the museum board, said Saturday the museum 'caved' to anonymous threats from people angered to see the American flag next to the Mexican flag.

She called an emergency meeting Thursday after receiving more than 250 calls and e-mails regarding the flags removal earlier in the week.

The museum is also increasing its security budget by $100,000.

In a unanimous vote, Kaluzniacki said the board reversed its earlier decision to remove the three flags. She said the board wants the flags flying again as soon as next week. Kaluzniacki said that the flags had flown for years without soliciting a public response, but that threats increased as the debate over immigration raged in the past few years.

'We decided if we're going to fight any fight, we're going to fight what we felt was the morally correct fight. We are not a political organization. Our work as conservationists, researchers and educators has nothing to do with politics,' Kaluzniacki said. 'This is a sign to extremists we will not give into threats.'

Threats were made against animals, plants and the museum, she said and the Pima County Sheriff's Office advised the museum to take the threats eriously.

It's inspiring to see some spine on our side, even if belatedly.

Anonymous threats are a dime a dozen from the cowards who are lining up to terrorize Latinos in Arizona. It hasn't been so common lately to see them met with principled defiance. I salute the Museum Board for coming to its senses.

More than that, I hope that this small action on the side of human dignity instills some guts in the rest of us. It's been conspicuously absent, not just here but nationally, in Congress, the courts, across state legislatures and city halls, and in the homes of average Americans as, over the past six years, we've watched various leagues of thugs subvert all that the country was founded to be.

From the well-paid congressional aides who intimidated vote counters in Florida, to DOD Thug-in-Chief Rumsfeld and his merry band of boys and girls at Abu Ghraib, to the Blackwater Boys (I'll bet they're also behind the automatic weapons that peek from the SUV windows when the Pres-Boy goes a-fund raisin'), to the post-lobotomy anonymous callers in Tucson, we're up to our backsides in thugs.

It's time to stand up to them. The promise of America, the hope of our Constitution, and the rights of common, decent working men and women are just some of the things at stake.

It's not about Congress, or the cops, or anyone else. And it's not about a "lost" America. It's about an ideal that has to be re-enacted every day if it is to remain alive.

The only folks up to that task are the folks we see every day in our mirrors.