Power To The People
Posted on Monday, May 1st, 2006 at 11:05 pm under Personal.Tags: immigration, los-angeles, march
We were part of history today. We went as a family to support our people here in Los Angeles. Today there was a march and a boycott in every hispanic state in the US. Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Miami unified in a MASSIVE show of unity. A reported 400,000 people in LA alone, although it seemed more than that from there.
May 2nd, 2006 at 9:41 am
I would be interested in hearing your take on the immigration issues. Do you think it is okay for people to enter the country illegally? Why do you think people don’t go through legal channels? If you don’t believe the current proposed law changes make sense, what do you think should be done?
May 2nd, 2006 at 9:53 am
you go melvin! As well, down south, here in Mexico, everyone boycotted American products. Myself included. Er um, i did the boycotting (not, um, uh, was boycotted). Actually, to be honest, Marcia bought me a Coke. I felt guilty as I drank it on the beach. But we all did our share down here as best we could.
May 2nd, 2006 at 10:23 am
Yeah, man. Same here in Kansas City. Not nearly 400k, about half that population here. Seems nearly 80% participated. The talk show hosts had nothing but venom for them. Sad. The U.S. will miss out on what could be a tremendous boost to the economy if common ground is not reached.
May 2nd, 2006 at 11:00 am
These pictures are great! There was not as large of a boycott here in Minneapolis, but then again I would imagine we have a smaller population and therefore a smaller amount of people to support it. But we had one great thing, more than just Mexicans. There were many other groups there suporting the idea that EVERYONE in America is a child of an immigrant. The only people that were here were the Native Americans so many years ago… if anyone should understand successful and peaceful immigration, it should be our politicians learning from their forefathers who came here to escape the same types of persecution so many immigrants that come to the United States are escaping. ¡Si se puede!
May 2nd, 2006 at 11:30 am
let’s just say i’ve been listening to Rage Against The Machine all morning.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Man that is awesome. I support the protests although I did not join in the rallies due to work.
Here’s what I wrote on a comments section/poll that WFAA-Channel 8 held here in Dallas:
If more people could see how others in poor countries live, they would be more compassionate instead of saying the “best thing” is to send everyone back to Mexico and other countries. It’s strange how we all become such law-abiding citizens when we are not the law breakers.
When parents have to feed their children and there is no food, they will do whatever it takes to survive. Laws will not keep people from coming to the U.S. This is the land of the free and this freedom we enjoy is what every human being is seeking.
I’m for helping those that need our help. We can find a suitable solution that will protect the U.S. and help those in need. The answer is not labeling them criminals and sending everyone back. That is costing more. If it’s the welfare people are concerned about, fix it. If it’s jobs, create a solution.
There are many other criminals in the U.S. that we should be concerned about not people looking for a better life. Let’s put ourselves in their shoes and we will understand why they come here any chance they get.
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:47 pm
M,
could you describe the general atmosphere or feelings of people that went there? I think it’s quite interesting this kind of social marchs even their impact is not quite mesurable in its political influence I think they contribute to enhance people’s political conscience…
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:05 pm
San Antonio had no protesters. I have an article that describes why. San Antonio is a good indicator of what will happen 15 years from now in LA, NY, Chicago and Miami. In the 80’s during the last amnesty push, San Antonio was the most visible city politically on this issue (Henry Cisneros lives here). Today San Antonio is 65% Hispanic with the English speaking rate at 85%. Very interesting. San Antonio has almost no ESL classes in the school districts. A city once mostly full of spanish speakers is now almost entirely Englsih speaking. This is the future and where the whoel debate should be focused.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:22 pm
Where’s the article?
May 2nd, 2006 at 6:25 pm
Jaime…I don’t get it. Yes, please pass on that article.
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:41 pm
This is totally a fascinating kind of social demonstration. If I understand it correctly, it creates attention hopefully in a very positive way, will be intersting to see what the effects will be.
…
ps: that flash photo gallery thing is hot, is that open source?
May 2nd, 2006 at 9:22 pm
the not so peaceful side of the event - [ one | two | three ]
May 3rd, 2006 at 3:38 am
Based on those videos, I don’t see how you can tell who was at fault or what the police were doing. It is just a garbled mess.
My first inclination is to support the protest that occurred Monday. Even though I was born and raised in the U.S., my wife went through a ridiculously long and frustrating citizenship process. I can definitely understand why someone might grow weary of the system.
However, what I don’t understand is why no one is voicing any alternatives to the currently suggested law changes. I haven’t seen one news story or write up where anyone has said how the new laws would be wrong and what should be done instead. Now that you have at least part of the countries attention, it is time to educate. Otherwise, what is the point of the demonstrations and protests in the first place?
May 3rd, 2006 at 5:16 am
*I’m going to use “you” to mean those protesting and angry about currently planned immigration reforms, just to not have type that over and over. Don’t read too much into it*
I’m not being critical, but I just not sure I understand what the protests are about. Everyone seems to be implying that immigration as a whole (including many pictured above) is being harmed in some way, but as far as I know most of the proposed reforms increase the amount of legal immigration while being tougher on illegal immigration. I’m perfectly willing to believe that I’m wrong or missed something, so please inform me.
That being said (as R Mitchell already asked), what is the proposed solution? What is wrong with the current proposals that you are protesting? How would you change things?
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:15 am
It is my assumption that Melvin posted these pics and videos as documentary resources of the events that took place. I don’t think- especially since he hasn’t voiced his opinion politically, that he intends this to be a place to create a political debate. For those of you that wish to participate in that type of discussion rather than just see first-hand documentaries on the event and/or share your experiences, you should seek out those channels to have your questions answered rahter than continue to demand them from this forum. Here are a couple I found for you by simply typing a search into google:
http://forums.mercurynews.com/kr-politics/start
http://www.libertynewsforum.com/libertynewsforumcgi/YaBB/YaBB.cgi/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1145674502
Now Melvin, back to that HOT flash(?) photo display… open source? :)
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:58 am
so here are my personal answers. i do not wish for this to become a political debate in any way. but here’s a more detailed account of my experience.
overall there was a peaceful feeling during the protest. for the most part it was not the affluent politically conscious immigrants, it was the working people that would be working the factories, yards, corner carts etc. there were a small percentage of mid class hispanic university students and an even smaller amount of caucasians, asians and other non-hispanics. there were people as far as i can see on both directions of the street. lots of kids. lots of families. trumpets, drums, chants and really really funny signs.
in the protest there were people with many different agendas. some very anti-everything and some just stating the human side of this issue. but overall the protest was organized in response to some of the proposed solutions that include the criminalization or deportation of people that have been here for longer than i have. this people would become citizens if allowed but that is not the case. personally i would rather see the us doing production business with mexico rather than china but in reality mexico’s issues have to do more with their money being held up at the top by corruption.
so now that that’s out of the way, the awesome gallery app i’m using is called LightBox JS v2. It is a javascript app that uses Prototype and Scriptaculous. and involves absolutely no code on my part except adding a rel=”lightbox” parameter on my link tag.
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:19 am
Awesome Melvin! Thanks, I will definately be checking out LightBox!!!
May 4th, 2006 at 5:55 am
Melvin, I read this article and was wondering if you saw any black people holding their own protests?
The Great Black Split Over Immigration
In Los Angeles, where there were many Mexican and Mexican-American protesters, a few blacks held a mini-rally to promote their new black initiative, “The We Want to Work Campaign.” Activist Greg Butler in South Los Angeles told NPR, “We want you to show us where those jobs are that nobody wants. There are black men walking around who can’t find work.”
See full article here:
http://www.diversityinc.com/members/21273.cfm
May 6th, 2006 at 7:03 am
My wife is a legal immigrant from the Philippines. She worked extremely hard to get here and has earned her citizenship. Nothing pisses off a legal immigrant more then those who broke the law to get to the USA! Well except for being called a racist because you oppose the illegal aliens.
Watching the demonstrators wave the Mexican flag, singing a bastardized altered version of the National Anthem in Spanish and knowing the architects of the protests and what they stand for (Communism, Socialism, & Radical take back the American Southwest organizations); not to mention the protest being held on May Day a former Communist Workers Party holiday; this will backfire on the illegal aliens. Notice I used the proper descriptive name “illegal alien” rather then the phony deceptive names the media would have you read.
I have zero problems with the Mexican people immigrating to this country as long as they do it legally! I have no problem with them wanting to work and even send money home to their struggling families. But in order to Be an Immigrant, they must put aside their Mexican background and they must assimilate into the American culture. They must become American! They must swear allegiance to the USA and they must learn the language. I believe in Amnesty for all illegals who work and pay taxes and who do not have criminal records (in either Mexico or America). I believe they should be given the opportunity to get back in line and wait their turn to become an American citizen. In the meantime, they need to get a temporary guest worker visa to continue to remain in the country. I believe that those who apply for the guest worker program should have their backgrounds examined. I believe that any employer who willfully hires illegal aliens should be fined and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I believe that all of the illegal aliens currently housed in American prisons should be deported to their countries of origin ASAP. I wish to see the diseased coyotes who traffic in human suffering be imprisoned.
Protesting is a reserved privilege for American citizens who can vote. All the protests have done is open the eyes of the American people to the enormity of the illegal alien problem. It has had the opposite intended effect! The more the illegals flaunt their presence the more the American public will become incensed and angered. The more the leadership behind these protests expresses itself the more we realize what they stand for. Americans are tired of paying taxes to print public documents in Spanish, we are tired of paying taxes to pay for free healthcare of illegal aliens. We are tired of paying taxes to fund the illegals welfare.
What did I do on May 1st while the protests were in full swing? I worked extra hours, then instead of driving straight home, I went shopping. I spent $5,482.00 on a new laptop, digital camera, and software! I then went out to eat with my wife and spent another $200.00 at a restaurant the doesn’t hire illegal kitchen help!
Even with all the debate about the illegal aliens and their demand for rights they did not earn; I am not worried about the future of America. These illegals are currently doing the jobs no one wants but demographically a new generation of Americans is up and coming and that generation is called Generation Y. They will be 100 million strong in number and almost all of them will be fully computer literate. This new generation will force out the illegal workers when they start entering the workforce in the next 5 years. Illegals won’t be able to get jobs anymore because the Americans will be hungry for work and will demand accountability from the employers to hire Americans first. When these young workers enter the job market they will take the low paying jobs currently being performed by the illegals. This will also take care of much of the outsourcing issues as of late. There will be huge demand for employment and American companies will have to absorb that demand back home. This workforce will be much more technically savvy so there will be less need for low paying tech jobs. History shows that when the job market is large and the economy is doing well, then immigrants will flow across the border to fill the need. But when the jobs dry up they return to their countries. It’s all supply and demand. It will all work out in the end.
May 15th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Yes, we are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement. Equality of rights is the cynosure of our union of States, the grand exemplar of the correlative equality of individuals; and while truth sheds its effulgence, we cannot retrograde, without dissolving the one and subverting the other. We must onward to the fulfilment of our mission — to the entire development of the principle of our organization — freedom of conscience, freedom of person, freedom of trade and business pursuits, universality of freedom and equality. This is our high destiny, and in nature’s eternal, inevitable decree of cause and effect we must accomplish it. All this will be our future history, to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man — the immutable truth and beneficence of God. For this blessed mission to the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth, has America been chosen; and her high example shall smite unto death the tyranny of kings, hierarchs, and oligarchs, and carry the glad tidings of peace and good will where myriads now endure an existence scarcely more enviable than that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity?
That was written in 1839 by a man by the name of John L Sullivan, (Sullivan , Nature of Futurity)1839
As the United States expanded and moved West , this was the rationalization that was used . Therfore , based on this same argument I say Manifest Destiny is again occuring but the proverbial shoe is on the other foot and it is too tight.
God is great and we are all His children.