Arizona, the home of my heritage, no longer feels like home. The high skies and endless horizons… the warmth of the desert sun in February… the sights, sounds and smells of a spring training game at the ball park… all make it a grand place to visit.

But the meanness of spirit in a state that has become the capitol of America’s rightwing politics makes it a place I no longer want to live (see “A Fond Farewell” under travel archives). Three new examples follow:

First, on top of last year’s racial profiling law (see “Arizona and Immigration” under politics archives), the state is now trying to turn hospital administrators and school officials into immigration officers.

Second, despite the Tucson gun tragedy, Arizona’s legislators are seeking to expand the lawful carrying of guns into the state’s universities and to the outskirts of public schools.

And third, the draconian cuts in the state’s Medicaid program are costing people their lives.

With regard to immigration issues, the state legislature is considering bills to force the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution into court by requiring that hospitals issue special birth certificates to babies whose parents cannot produce citizenship documents. These new birth certificates would proclaim that the child is not a citizen of Arizona.

Other legislation would deny children without proper documentation the right to enter school, would evict undocumented people from public housing, and criminalize driving while undocumented.

On the gun front, they are working on bills that would permit professors and students over 21 to carry firearms into classrooms. Despite opposition from the chiefs of police at the three public-universities, the leaders on all three campuses, and the chair of Arizona’s Board of Regents, the Republican legislators are moving forward.

Just imagine this scene: A deranged student pulls a gun in a classroom. The professor and several students grab their guns and a shoot-out takes place in a room filled with innocent bystanders.

Other gun bills among the 16 on the legislature’s docket include prohibiting rental agents from forbidding guns on their property, and permitting guns immediately outside school grounds.

With regard to slashing the Medicaid program, Governor Jan Brewer has proposed to cut out 280,000 poor people from care and the legislature is pushing a bill that would pull Arizona out of the program altogether.
The cruelness of the cuts is best seen in the governor’s decision to discontinue funding for the 100 people awaiting a transplant. Since implementing that decision two people have died.

Laurie Roberts, a columnist for The Arizona Republic chronicled the case of Courtney Parham, one of the remaining 98.

Roberts wrote that Courtney, a 23-year old woman with Leukemia, is “at the beginning of life, that time when the possibilities are as wide open as the Arizona horizon— or they should be. Sadly, Courtney is living in a state where we no longer see the possibilities in a person’s life— only the cost.”

The cost to Arizona’s Medicaid program for Courtney’s bone marrow transplant would be around $130,000. Without the surgery she will die.

Courtney told Roberts that the governor and the legislature “see everybody as a dollar sign…” and her mother said “A budget? Are you kidding me? Here I am an American whose entire 30-year career (as a nurse) has been helping people… and now when we need help, there is a crack and Courtney has fallen through it.”

Perhaps the argument that sacrifices must be made to get Arizona’s budget deficit under control rings true to many people. But denying this young woman the right to life over $130,000?

Consider this: in the same February 26 edition of the newspaper in which Roberts told Courtney’s story, there was an article about the state putting $25 million into a “deal closing fund” for bringing business to Phoenix. The fund will be administered by a 30-person politically appointed board, and will be largely exempt from public oversight.

In Arizona— and in Washington— the problem is not the budget deficit. The problem is a morality deficit. The problem isn’t a lack of money; it is a lack of courage among those who set public priorities.