Beware of Wonder Drug’s Side Effects

“It’s so frustrating not to know what to do or what to think or what to tell your children.”

Her tone was one of desperation, and her sentiment, no doubt, is common. The caller was a Northridge woman, one of several readers who phoned in response to a recent column appealing to Mayor Richard Riordan to announce his position on Proposition 187, to say whether he thinks it’s good medicine or bad medicine. There was an unusual volume of response, from people on both sides of the anti-illegal immigration measure.

It’s been an interesting couple of days and, so far, nobody’s said the mayor should keep his mouth shut. There has been an interesting variety of views. Ted Bentley of Hancock Park, for example, told me I shouldn’t underestimate the Mexican plot to recapture California. David Castro, a Mexican American, seemed more concerned about the Armenians in his former hometown of Glendale than the fate of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. And one woman who requested anonymity urged the media to “expose” Mayor Riordan for his abhorrent views.

But of all the conversations, I keep returning to Jan, Frustrated in Northridge.

Unlike the other callers, Jan didn’t seem certain about how she’ll vote on Tuesday. A registered Republican, she has been planning to vote “yes” on 187, but her doubts have been growing. In a close election--and 187 has been getting closer and closer--it’s those undecided who end up deciding.

A few relevant facts about Jan: First, that isn’t her real name. She’s a homemaker, the mother of two sons, one at Chatsworth High and one in junior high, and she’s worried that the publication of her true name could put her family at risk. She’s white, you see, and the recent student walkouts have her worried that the worst is yet to come.

“It’s provoking violence, is what it’s doing,” she said, “and somebody’s going to get hurt. Your own children are being put on the line.”

There are probably a lot of Jans out there. Arguments that 187 is racist don’t impress her, because she has long prided herself on having colorblind attitudes. Although bigotry motivates some supporters of 187, people who argue that the measure equals racism may antagonize the voters, like Jan, they want to win over.

Like many people, Jan was dismayed by the display of Mexican flags at the protests. She watched news reports of the student walkouts and saw hostility. Not unlike Rodney King, she’s calling on people to just get along. And at the root of all this anger, she sees a failure of leadership.

“I just personally think it is rather odd that something like this would be on a ballot,” Jan said. “No, I wish it had never got to the point of needing to be on the ballot, in such harsh terms.”

In such harsh terms. Yes, she is leaning in favor, because she thinks “something needs to be done.” Why, she wonders, have illegal immigrants and their children been receiving benefits at all? “It’s so inside out,” she says.

But then again, Jan doesn’t want to throw children out of school, and she doesn’t want to deny them preventive health care. And she doesn’t want to turn teachers and nurses and doctors into INS agents.

And when Jan sees the students protesting--all that anger--she thinks about the potential for ethnic violence in a city that knows that story too well. So it makes her think twice. She knows that she’s not a racist--but is racism in the eye of the beholder?

We found ourselves in accord on several points. The Mexican flags and the student demonstrations, Jan and I agreed, would hurt the protesters’ cause more than help it.

“You can look at the faces of those kids,” she said. “They’re out to make a stand on something they don’t know anything about more than I do.”

It was interesting to hear that--the frank admission of ignorance. Both sides will marshal their statistics and their arguments. But millions of people remain uncertain. Is it good medicine or bad medicine?

So for Jan and others like her, the question is what you do when you’re feeling sick and you find a mysterious vial of pills in your medicine cabinet.

Do you really want to take one? Do you want to take the chance?

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

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