Chandler, AZ: Littleton, CO

Now here’s a twist:

If you’ve kept up with this blog, you would know that my mom’s side of the family comes from Nogales, Arizona. I haven’t told you about Pop’s side.

They hail from dense suburbia surrounding Denver, Colorado: Littleton, to be precise. In years past, you might have heard of Littleton in national headlines if for no other reason that one word: Columbine. Columbine High School: the site of what some consider the first of many deadly high school shootings. My aunt went there, my uncle went there.

Columbine is also home to another, more recent headline-grabber: United States Representative Tom Tancredo, the former whipping boy in Congress for his “zany” political views on immigration. He is the get-tough grandfather of immigration enforcement—an advocate for stiff (many would say harsh) policy and penalties for both undocumented immigrants and the people who would hire them. For a while, popular opinion held Tom Tancredo as a joke in the House. A loudmouth, a talking head, a cartoon: he wasn’t to be taken too seriously.

The tides have changed. Recent rhetoric adds an array of prefixes to the “tide”: “undocumented”, “illegal”, “alien”, take your pick. The debate on immigration reform is as vast as an ocean right now, and the waves of dissonance are crashing upon the shores of communities throughout the United States.

Consequently Tancredo is being looked upon with new eyes. Not quite the loon he once was. He’s still out there, but supporters claim that he’s an “advocate”, “someone who stands up for our nation” a “true American.”

I don’t know what any of that means. It sounds like malarkey to me.

Personally, Tom Tancredo isn’t ever a guy I would advocate for, however much a “patriot” he is. Tancredo is know for prodding along an unmitigated anti-immigration fervor, and regardless of his current fan base, I find his brand of extremism particularly intolerable.

I will say this for Double T (can I call him that?): he brings a voice to the table. Malcolm X once said that he would rather have a KKK member (and I am in no way equating such and individual with TT) sit down and yell it out with an Elijah-Mohammed Muslim than have a whole panel of religious leaders chitter-chat around a roundtable. The point is, these people get the word out. It’s not pretty, it’s not eloquent, it just is. Speaks for itself.

Progressives need these leaders as well, and at the national level. Presidential candidate Hillary isn’t that leader, nor are big guns Obama and Dean. Ground-level squirts like A.C.L.U. organizer Ray Ybarra and AZ State Rep. Krysten Sinema are the movers and shakers right now.

I digress. I have my leftist leanings, but what I want to leave with you is this: if you’ve got a cause to fight for—people to fight for—put yourself out there and listen to both sides. Create discussion, be an advocate (whatever that means), but be informed. Guys like TT from Littleton, Colorado will fan the fire of debate, but it’s you who will choose whether or not to carry a torch or start a fire of your own.

Littleton has some great weather too. It's a fantastic place to live.