Last week, a man identifying himself as Johnny Bolton spoke before the city council of Ashland, Oregon on behalf of a group called Citizens for a Really Safe Ashland. All of you wingnut gun freaks need to stop and listen to what this man has to say. You just might learn something.

“Anything that we can do to give ourselves a false sense of security, and that allows us to proclaim things like ‘Protect the children’ and ‘Enhance public security,’ must be right. Right?”

Right?

When I attended my first Tea Party in Indianapolis back in April 2009, two of the most effective speakers were an Irish couple who had moved to the U.S. to escape usurious taxation, and who were aghast that the same thing was happening here. Less than a year later, when I was crippled in Washington, DC by a State Department vehicle making an illegal turn, and was then given a fraudulent jaywalking ticket for it, the Romanian woman from whom I’d planned to rent an apartment* told me that this was just the sort of corruption and misrule that had driven her from her home country.

Sometimes it takes an immigrant — a legal immigrant — to remind us of what we all too often take for granted as Americans.

If I lived in Ashland, I’d vote for Johnny Bolton for mayor. Hell, I’ll vote for him for any office he wants.

(Hat tip: Jason Howerton)

*I was supposed to put down the deposit on the apartment the very next day, but I ended up not being able to move in because it didn’t have wheelchair access.

Update: You can learn more about this gentleman at vigofox.com.