We associate the number nine with extremes: highs (cloud nine), lows (the ninth Psalm, predicting the coming of the Antichrist), good luck and bad. Considering the spectrum of events we lived through in 2010-2011—from the greatest victories to the worst tragedies—the number nine seems a particularly apt symbol for the past twelve months’ happenings. On the plus side, DADT was repealed; on the minus side, a near-apocalyptic disaster devastated Japan. Last year, we opened our Annual Year in Review with the crisis in Haiti, which proves again that life is fragile.
30. THE MELTING POT FREEZES OVER
In April, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who took over Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano’s old job mid-term, signed Arizona SB1070. The controversial anti-immigration law requires all immigrants to carry alien registration cards at all times, and authorizes police to demand papers from anyone appearing reasonably “illegal.” Brewer’s law alarmed civil libertarians and immigration activists, but was a hit with Arizona voters, who overwhelmingly elected her to a full term in November 2010.
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