You don't normally see all different races come together to rally. The political rallies I've been to have mostly been primarily one race or another. One big exception was the March for Peace in Washington, DC in September of 2005. I saw more different faces than I ever had in the past and it was great. War is one hell of a rallying cry that supersedes. And today I read this piece in the Chicago Tribune about a large rally of ~100K gathered in the Loop to show support for immigration rights.
The wide-ranging organizing committee also included the Nation of Islam, Service Employees International Union Local 73, evangelical churches and the Puerto Rican Cultural Center.
Tapping into immigrant growth in the suburbs, organizers rented about 200 buses for immigrants boarding near taquerias and churches in such far-flung towns as Waukegan and Aurora.
A subplot of the day's events, organizers said, was the Chicago economy's reliance on immigrant labor. Organizers encouraged participants to leave work, with some calling for a "general strike" today to underscore the workload shouldered by immigrants, including those without legal status.
Around the area, business owners weighed whether to give the march their blessing or to resist the employee exodus.
Great to hear about people coming together in positive support for their nationalities and advocating responsible governmental action in regards to immigration opposing irrational unhelpful shutting down of borders.
A fence. Yeah, because that stops terrorism, stowaways, payoffs at the border... And how is this huge fence going to be maintained and patrolled? God forbid we pup a fence to those white Canadians to our north, the largest porous border in the world, right?Rally organizers said they oppose H.R. 4437, a bill approved in the U.S. House of Representatives that would drastically strengthen immigration enforcement, including the construction of a fence along the Mexican border.
Instead, they back a competing bill that would provide legal status for most undocumented immigrants and make it easier for legal immigrants to bring in relatives. That legislation, sponsored by U.S. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass), also would expand temporary work visas.
SO pissed off that I missed this event. What a huge demo!
This is what I get for going to law school.
Ironically, the reason this event was so big was because the a spanish radio schock jock was promoting it - isn't that nuts?!?!?
Posted by: agustin | March 10, 2006 at 11:12 PM