In Arizona, a Republican State Senator is under attack for referring to a Government program by its official name. The program, of course, is the Eisenhower deportation effort Operation Wetback.

Rep. Pearce calls for mass deportations Associated Press Sept. 29, 2006

This weird attempt to ban discussion of an historical event has been noticed here before. But it is significant and worth thinking about.

The Anglo-Saxon tradition of political discourse needs free speech. The concept that some issue can be declared taboo and excluded from public consciousness by anathematization, not uncommon in other cultures, is an alien import. It must be rejected with scorn. l