Until the day I die I will always be “reasonably suspicious,” a possible drug-cartel member or illegal immigrant. I will never be waved through border patrol checkpoints which not dot Southern Arizona like those in the car in front of me.

Even the books I read and music I listen to or art I enjoy will be used against me in a court of law, as it was in the Ethnic Studies trial in Arizona.

And despite the race of the mass shooters, from Jared Loughner to James Holmes, or to other murderers outside of Tucson such as Shawna Forde and Jason Bush, white supremacist members of the Minutemen that killed Brisenia Flores and her father while also shooting her mother, the Sheriff Arpaio lovers and TEA Party will never start fearing their grandkids even though Russell Pearce and Jan Brewer have sons in jail.

It is the brown person that must be feared. It is Latinos getting educated in Mexican American Studies that plan to “overthrow the US Government.” And it is us who are the cause of the financial meltdown. It has nothing to do with the billionaire bankers and their bailouts, but mythical welfare collectors who we all picture as black and Latino.

Just as with other mass murders, the media will focus on this for another 15 minutes and then it will be forgotten. Then another murderer will be spawned, and we will wonder once again why it happened.

Perhaps if Americans started looking within, and at all cultures and races, rather than focusing as Arizona does on the evilness of Ethnic Studies and bilingual education, or whether people living here peacefully for decades have the proper paperwork, then we might prevent future tragedies.

But this would require us to look beyond the illusion, the American flag or the crucifix in the house and focus more on what type of weapons your neighbor has and why. Their internet ramblings and conspiracy sites they visit may be more dangerous than a banned book by Rudy Acuña read in TUSD.

This will never happen.