ONE NATION UNDIVIDED?

Arizona's recently enacted law requiring all people, be they American citizens or not, to carry identity papers lest they be jailed, gives rise to the question, are we indeed the UNITED States of America or are we on the road to another civil war? State fighting state, region fighting region?

Our union was formed around a federalist model that entrusted its common defense, among other things, to a national or federal government. In so doing, the founders reasoned, a unified country would be stronger and better able to defend itself than were we thirteen separate entities. The overall idea of course was that in unity there is strength. It was true then and it remains true today. When we stray from that model we are weaker as a nation, The founders were indeed wise.

Comparing the recently enacted Arizona immigration law to those of Nazi Germany and the beginning of the Holocaust, as well as to the internment and deportation of Japanese Americans during World War II, the Los Angels City Council voted today to prohibit all official city travel to Arizona and to prohibit the city from entering into any contract with companies in the state. How many more cities, towns, and states will follow is anybody's guess. Indeed, some already have.

When Arizona enacted its law, it chipped away at the unity that is the historic strength of our nation. Imagine if every state enacted a patchwork of laws on issues that are the purview of the federal government. Now imagine that various local and state governments from around the country, who disagreed with those laws, passed Los Angeles style retaliatory laws to express their disagreement. You can quickly see the corrosive effect that this would have upon the nation. It would only be a matter of time until our country would fall under the weight of so many conflicting laws and the subsequent inevitable hostilities and retaliations.

The founders of this nation were indeed wise. They devised a system of governance that has produced the longest standing, strongest democracy in history. The Arizona law is a threat to that system and thus to our nation as a whole.