Can you imagine if suddenly the front door to your home was taken off and as a result you and your family were subjected to burglaries and assaults while being forced to live with and feed anyone who entered your home? That would seem an extremely dangerous situation to be in but add to that that you are forbidden to put your door back on its hinges and when you try to expel the unwanted visitors and criminals in your living room you are called racist by elected officials. Welcome to Arizona’s world.

Adding insult to injury, how would any of us feel if our teachers and professors gave us a failing grade on our final term papers but didn’t bother to actually read them before giving us that big F?

Would that make sense to any student? Yet United States Attorney General Eric Holder has done exactly that with regard to the Arizona law. In interview after interview from coast to coast, Holder stated that the Arizona law was unfair and unjust, but when asked by Ted Poe (R-Tex) if he actually read the law he responded that he had not.

What are American’s to think when according to the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, the Arizona law is supported by 70 percent of the people in Arizona, 60 percent of all Americans, and 50 percent of all Hispanics yet our President ignores the desires of the people of this country and instead turns to Mexican President Felipe Calderon for support. More than that, the Democratic Congress applauded Calderon’s lambasting of Arizona’s immigration law, a law that mirrors the Federal immigration law. How is this possible? What are we to think?

It is becoming quite clear that the upcoming mid-term elections in November will be the most important elections since this country declared its independence in 1776. There is at stake the future direction of this Country and whether the people of this nation will choose a new type of government. We are in the midst of a physically non-violent civil war. On one side there are the liberal Democrats who want this country to embrace a new socialist agenda filled with entitlements, government run healthcare and open and unsecured borders while on the other side there are conservative Republicans who want to get this country back to the principles of the founding fathers and the Constitution of the United States.

In this physically non-violent civil war, each vote takes the place of a musket being fired. Arizona has become the new Fort Sumter and the battle lines are drawn in the sand on the Mexican border. In many ways the upcoming mid-term elections could mark the beginning of the end of the Republic; the end of democracy, the United States Constitution and the principles held since our nation was founded. Or, it could be the start of a new appreciation for the freedoms we have enjoyed. The upcoming elections offer great opportunity that comes with great responsibility; do we rise to the challenge or do we sit idly by as our freedoms continue to be chipped away, one by one? The decision is ours!

**The views expressed in this column represent only those of the author and not the board or membership of the Juniper Park Civic Association.