Here's a hopeful bit of news out of Arizona: After the passage earlier this year of that hateful SB1070 targeting anyone who looked like an immigrant (and we all knew what that meant), a new study out today from the Center for American Progress says that the state is starting to pay the price, to the tune of $45 million in lost convention business so far. According to CAP:
Arizona’s Hotel and Lodging Association publicly reported a combined loss of $15 million in lodging revenue due to meeting cancellations just four months after the bill’s passage.
Our extensive research estimates that the actual lost lodging revenue from these cancellations is at least three times that amount: $45 million. That estimate provides a basis for calculating other losses in visitor spending. Analyzing average food and beverage, entertainment, in-town transportation, and retail sales brings the combined loss of estimated conference attendee spending up to a startling $141 million.
Of course, next season's Major League Baseball All-Star game is still, disgracefully especially given the large number of Latino players, scheduled to be played in Phoenix. Tell commissioner Bud Selig to move the game, here.
It may be no coincidence that on the day that the Milwaukee Brewers, with their so-called "Hebrew Hammer" Ryan Braun, arrived for their once a season appearance against the NY Mets, the Mets rolled out a media event this monday that - to the best of my knowledge - is the 1st public event promoting NY's rookie 1st baseman as "half Jewish," as he described himself in today's NY Times.
Davis (full name Isaac Benjamin Davis), the son of former major league pitcher Ron Davis also has a Jewish mom. To hear him tell it, his paternal grandfather's experience as a GI liberator of a concentration camp in WWII made him more open to the son bringing home a Jewish woman who herself had family experience in the Holocaust.
Davis said his grandfather was from a “particular time” and that “his family was a certain way” but that his “experience of opening those doors to the camp and the suffering he saw gave him an affinity for the Jewish people.”
He said of his parents, “I think it made things easier for their marriage.”
Yesterday Davis was embracing "both sides of his family history," decsribing himself as half jewish but not religious, and talking to a group of descendants of Holocaust survivors.
So, what does this have to do with Jewish social justice?
The ongoing campaign to move the 2011 Baseball All-Star game out of Arizona came to DC this past weekend, with the Arizona Diamondbacks visiting the Nats.
Great post by David Zirin over at the Nation describing the demonstration this sunday, the 17th overall at a baseball venue this season.
Sign the petition telling commissioner Bud Selig to move the game.
Major League Baseball is scheduled to host the 2011 All-Star Game in Phoenix in July 2011. BOOO!! Other than the World Series, the All-Star Game represents the most high-profile and prestigious game every season in baseball.
So many baseball players are Latino and there is a huge Latino fan base, too. How could baseball responsibly hold a game in Phoenix when they know much of their fan base could be harassed for being "suspicious" i.e. brown skinned while in town to attend the game? Some fans are cleverly trying to get the game moved outta Phoenix. Check out their fight, sign the petition and drop a freaking banner, why don't ya!
With Arizona's SB 1070 officially taking effect this past week, and with a Federal court officially blocking most of its' contested provisions, one approach might be to enter into a holding pattern; allowing our deep anger to simmer and wait for a court decision.
Another, better route, would be to keep the pressure on.
Whether that means you boycott Arizona, or as Lady Gaga did, go and speak out once you get there, telling people to "get active and protest prejudice and injustice and the whole s--t." My favorite moment this weekend were the protests at CitiField in NY against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks, though
Mik & I went to a Mets game last week & took note of the highly visible promotion of the NY Carpenters Union, the team's partner in building their new stadium. As noted last year on this blog, the Mets have invested in publicly promoting their support for union labor on the new site - a task that has been taken over by 3rd baseman David Wright after the departure of Tom Glavine.
Since we're a non-partisan crowd, I'll tell you that the union workers of NY are similarly invested in the building of the new Yankee Stadium. With only 7 weeks left in the season, you can still get a souvenir pin at builditunion.com celebrating and supporting the carpenters work on both the new CitiField and/or the new Yankee Stadium.
Because NY is union town, regardless of your partisan affliations.
Baseball's back and that means so are the political issues that we at JSpot love to discuss in connection with our national pastime, like unions, racism, and religious freedom in the workplace. We can thank President Bush for succesfully opening the season with a resounding oomp. On sunday night he got the "raw emotion" of the fans (his words) at the Nats' home opener, who, DC insiders all, have a pretty resounding take on his performance as our fearless leader.
