We don't expect profundity or brilliance from state politicians, but it seems like we should be able to expect basic decency. Here's one who, as seen on a one of my local news programs, has failed that elemental test, and who unlike some of his fellow conservative lacked the canniness to cloak his cruelty. (Video here--.wmv file).
Greeley is a city of about 90,000, about 30% Hispanic, 50 miles northeast of here. It's not that far, but far enough that the area around it is mostly agricultural. While I can't say for sure, I think it's likely that the local economy depends a lot on the contribution of agricultural workers, many of whom are Hispanic. Probably some of those are here without documentation, drawn by the irresistible lure of maybe $60 or $80 a day for backbreaking, dangerous work in slaughterhouses or farms. Greeley was founded in 1870 as an attempt to create a utopian community, but its rapid growth and diversification in recent decades have given it its share of problems and tensions. In 2004 62.7% of its voters supported Bush/Cheney.
About a week ago, October 2, around 3:30 in the afternoon, a teenage driver there made a horrible mistake. Tanya Bustillos, 17, ran a stop sign in her Stratus and broadsided a pickup truck. Her 15 year old brother, her 12 year old brother, and her 3 month old baby were killed. Both boys were wearing seat belts. A tragedy, certainly, but we hear stories like it all the time. We are saddened briefly, then shrug and move on. (Slide show of the funeral--.mov file)
Not Dave Schultheis, though. He's running for State Senate in District 9, some 130 miles south of Greeley, in Colorado Springs. District 9 is right across I-25 from the Air Force Academy, and if I'm reading the maps right it includes the headquarters of James Dobson's Focus On the Family. (No, I won't give you a link for FOtF. Go google it yourself, if you really have to see it.) In 2002 the vote for the seat Schultheis wants was 100% Republican.
Ol' Dave isn't ashamed or bashful. He'll tell you just what he's thinking, or what in his case passes for thought. Among his questions in an email to a reporter were, "Was this person the child of parents in the U.S illegally ? Or was she here illegally?" No compassion, no offers to help, no respect at all. Just a base, contemptible attempt to exploit a family's loss for political gain by pandering to the most xenophobic, racist elements in our society. "Bustillos?" he must have said to himself, "Must be illegal. Serves them right. Got no right to be here." Of course, Colorado (a Spanish word) was Mexican territory long before it became U.S. territory as spoils of a nakedly imperialistic war, but don't get me going on that.
It turned out, though, that even in his assumptions Dave was way off base. According to a decent column in the Greeley Tribune, at least two of the kids were just as much citizens as I am, and their family had been living and working in the area for 12 years.
Dave, your constituents are, many of them, big on quoting the Bible. Try this from Deuteronomy 27 on for size:
Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow.
Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"