Sigh.

I noticed in the paper this morning that Arizona's governor signed into law a new piece of legislation... banning ethnic studies classes in schools.

I have expressed my frustration with the principle of "history months" previously; I feel we should be working toward a more inclusive history that does not consign our recognition of the diversity in our society to specific days or weeks or months. However, I also acknowledged at the time that until we can truly accomplish this, "months" and other attempts to rectify our failure to acknowledge the roles all citizens have played in the story of the United States remain very necessary.

It is a bitter irony that the very lack of historical perspective that has helped lead to decisions like the recent immigration statute (see my April 28 post) has now been codified in Arizona law.