Dear Tourists of the World,

As an Arizonan, I understand that some of you don’t like us very much these days. Many of you have called for boycotts of my state—public officials from Los Angeles, Austin and even St. Paul, Minn., refuse to visit or do business here.

I think of all the everyday workers being hurt by the boycotts—the waitresses with fewer customers, the shop owners waiting for vacationers, the taxi drivers with empty back seats, the museum workers hearing silence.

Arizonans are struggling with the recession like the rest of the country, and not visiting or doing business here only hurts us more. You can disagree with our legislators and shout your opinions while still supporting our residents.

For all of you who want to stay away, I’ve revised Dave Loggins’ “Please Come to Boston,” now also sung by Kenny Chesney. I’ve taken the liberty to insert your current feelings where called for.

Please Come to Arizona

Please come to Arizona for the scenery
We’re livin’ here with some legislators and they haven’t got lots of friends
You can protest our laws on the sidewalks
By a café where we hope you’ll be eating soon
Please come to Arizona
You said no, would you come to your senses for me?

And you said, hey, voting pols, why don’t you mend the wounds
Arizona ain’t our kind of place
There ain’t no respect, and there ain’t safety for us
We’re the No. 1 fan of human rights

Please come to Arizona with change in your pockets
We’ll show you our Grand Canyon as far as you can see
And shout “We want you” so it echoes down the canyon
And then lie still to hear your reply
Please come to Arizona
You said no, would you come to your senses for me?

Now tourist money is going down and down
And we doubt that it’s gonna end soon
But of all the treasures we have to share
And all that we hope to give you
We still need to hold on to
Your friendship and business

Please come to Arizona to live forever
Life in those cold states is just too hard to bear
We live in a place where the clouds rarely appear
And there’s a great view of the stars in the sky
Livin’ up on sunshine’s shoulder
Please come to Arizona

Now won’t you reconsider?

One of the problems with this boycott is that pure emotion overrides logic. Early on, people were boycotting Arizona Iced Tea and Arizona Jeans. Neither item is manufactured here. Are geography teachers going to erase the word “Arizona” on the U.S. map and replace it with “Awful Zone” so they don’t have to utter the word?

If you dislike what the lawmakers have put into motion, don’t punish the average Arizonan by ceasing business or travel here. Making a blanket decision about Arizona and its residents is like judging a book by its cover—or a face by its color.

This article appears in May 20-26, 2010.

8 replies on “Messina”

  3. I moved away and will not return to Anglozona until voters remove the cretins in the state legislature, who passed SB1070 and SB2281, and the governor from office.

    Patronizing anything to do with Anglozona, while white supremacists are running the show there, helps support the status quo. Change is painful, and I wish the millions in lost gross receipts would not impact people living in Anglozona who oppose the new laws.

    Move to Oregon, like I did. No sales tax here. What’s Tucson’s sales tax rate now? 9.1%? Isn’t the City planning to increase that, too?

    Boycott Anglozona!

  4. Good for you Mr Small! I wish I could move to Oregon but the wages here are so low and the taxes so high, I cannot afford the move. I will have to suffer Anglozona until hell freezes over.

  5. Please Don’t Come To Arizona
    It took boycotts to get an MLK day because of the bigots in public office. Now we have another bigot, Russell Pearce, who hates brown skin because his kid was killed by an illegal & wants to paint all browns with the same brush. The only way to insure Mexican Americans are not racially profiled is to hit us where it hurts…in the pocketbook! If the cops asked EVERYONE for their “papers” regardless of color or accent, this wouldn’t be a problem. In a perfect world this bill MIGHT work, but in an imperfect world with our hates and prejudices it isn’t going to work.
    People sometimes have to suffer to set a wrong to right. The business community courted and hired the illegals and now they cry? Sorry, suffer like the rest.
    Besides if people come to Arizona before SB1070 is fixed, who is going to wash the dishes and cook the food and make the beds? Not some of the lazy Americans who would rather stay home and collect unemployment than work for less than they think they are worth! PLEASE BOYCOTT ARIZONA

  6. Dear Mr. Small:

    Since you are unwilling to be part of the solution you are part of the problem.

    Boycotts, including yours, are harmful.

  7. I support the law regarding illegal immigrants coming to AZ. Since 1985 I’ve been visiting your beautiful state and spending loads of money. But I’m not going to spend any money in Tucson or Flagstaff because they are suing their own state over this law. I’ll stay and eat outside their city limits. I don’t see them doing so well financially, and I don’t want to give them any of my money.

  8. I can’t in good conscience agree with guilting people to spend their money in a place that passes laws they disagree with. I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if someone did that to you.

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