Yesterday, I attended the rally in support immigrant rights held in Los Angeles. The rally took place in my area of town, so I packed up the family and strolled with the marchers. Si Se Puede!! I was more observer than participant. To this point, I have not formed solid opinions on the illegal immigration issue, except for one: the border needs to be sealed. Here are my thoughts on the rally, entitled “A Day Without an Immigrant:”
- I have never seen so many people in one place–ever. If this rally wasn’t 1 million strong, I don’t know what was. I attended the Million Man March, and this rally made the crowd in Washington DC look small. Los Angeles is a Latino city. These marches will go down in history as a turning changing point in the history of Latino-Americans. There were protestors as far as the eye could see . . .
- For me, it’s difficult to develop a well-reasoned opinion on the rally because the protestors didn’t have one common goal. Some want full amnesty; some want drivers’ licenses; some want California returned to Mexico; some want the House Bill revoked; some just want to be left alone by “la migra.” There is not one single goal. Smart Republicans could divide the movement by exploiting those divisions.
- Seeing working poor people out marching for their rights made me really pause and consider some of my opinions on illegal immigration. It was like I was the white person and it was 1963. On the one hand, I sympathized with their cause. On the other hand, the vast majority of the immigrants are oblivious to black people and are clearly displacing us in the workplace.
- I saw a poster that said “Native Americans=Genocide; Africans=Slavery; Guest Worker Program=Indentured Servitude.” I found this particular sign amazing in its truth. Before yesterday, I had never really considered that a Guest Worker Program is, in many ways, indentured servitude. Moreover, the western United States was part of Mexico before whites took it in a straight “jack move.” If I were Latino, I’d want it back too. There were plenty of signs saying as much.
- The rally was about 95% Latino, 2% black, 2% white and 1% Asian. Most of the chants and slogans were in Spanish. There were about 4 American flags to every 1 Mexican or El Salvadoran flags.
- In general, I’ve got love for Latinos. I have a ton of Latino friends, co-workers and acquaintances. My issue is not with “immigrants,” but with illegal immigrants. I think the illegal immigrants should be given a slow path to citizenship, say, over a 10 year period, but the border must be sealed. Enough is enough.
- Last week, I spoke at a Career Day at a elementary school in Watts. Twenty years ago, the school was probably 90% black. Now, out of the 100 students I talked to, I’d say 6 were black. The rest were Latinos. Certainly, illegal immigration has had a devastating toll on black Los Angeles. What should I think of this? It’s unstoppable, and our population will only get smaller and smaller. Atlanta, hold a spot for me!
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