Say What?!?

As you know immigration reform is a hot button issue in Alabama these days.

People start to foam up when they talk about lost jobs, overcrowded schools and people abusing the system.

But just when you think you've heard it all, somebody raises the bar on the outrageous things they can and will say in public.

I'm all about free speech, hence this whole journalism thing, but during a discussion of two English-only bills being sponsored by Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, a member of the Senate Government Affairs Committee actually used the term "wetback."

Sen. W.H. "Pat" Lindsey, D- Butler, in his opposition to Beason's bills, said that the German and Korean workers who have made Alabama their home in recent years, "are not wetbacks trying to slip across the Rio Grande...this legislation is an insult to them."

I don't know about south Alabama, but where I'm from, calling somebody a "wetback" is insulting, even if it's aimed at people who are here illegally.

The bills as an insult was the same point that a representative from the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce was trying to make, but she was able to make it without calling anybody names.