Back in the early seventies I lived on what had previously been a dairy farm in upstate New York. The property stopped being a farm when the barn burned to the ground - the result of baling hay before it had sufficiency dried. Moisture that cannot escape from inside the tightly bundled hay, builds up heat to the point where it ignites the dry straw surrounding it. Old timers will warn you that spontaneous combustion can quickly turn a barn to ashes.
As I stood on Broadway in LA Saturday afternoon and watched the mass of humanity walking past me during the march in support of immigrants, the term, "spontaneous combustion" came to mind. Several homemade signs declared, "The sleeping giant has been awakened." The massive turnout proved it. The heat in the heart of the Latino community has exploded in flames, not from any single provocation, but from a build up of nationally sanctioned racism in the guise of immigration reform. Click for slide show of the event.
Most of the marcher's signs decried HR4437 - the Sensenbrenner Bill passed by the House last December that crossed the line from addressing concerns about border security and undocumented workers to criminalizing people who provide humanitarian aid for "illegals". Most Americans, no matter what they think they know about the impact of undocumented workers in the U.S., have a moral sense of responsibility for those less fortunate. They may not personally feed the poor and minister the sick, but they are generous to organizations that do so.
For people who justify their position against undocumented workers with the line, "We are a nation of laws," the realization that we are close to having a law that would throw soup kitchen volunteers in jail must be a chilling wake up call. The thought that police could legally ask anyone for proof of ID conjures images of anyone's son or husband running down to the corner store for a cup of coffee one morning without his driver's license, and ending up in jail because he can't prove he's here legally.
One has to ask those legislators who voted for this bill, including Darrell Issa, who co-authored it, whom I am running against, "What were you thinking?" Who are you representing when you approve legislation that will vilify compassionate citizens? This time, even many conservatives are thinking they've gone too far! When a majority of our representatives approve a bill that is so blatantly racist, many people are starting to say, "This isn't who we are."
I have found that most people who are concerned about the immigration issue are careful to lay the blame on the source of the problem: businesses who thrive on cheap labor and exploit desperate workers, and economic conditions in Mexico and Central America that impel workers to endure a lifetime of abuse and separation from their families just for the opportunity to work in the United States. Most Americans concerned about immigration will also tell you about the immigrants they know personally who are hard working, family-oriented, decent people.
Sadly, too many well-intentioned people are buying into the myths about illegal immigrants being spread by a mean-spirited minority. Concocted lies about immigrants who are taxing our systems and not paying taxes are being cunningly perpetuated by politicians with lots to gain by keeping undocumented workers marginalized. A website that dispels many of these distortions about immigrants is Justice for Immigrants at www.justiceforimmigrants.org.
Although I was one of the few non-Latinos in the crowd yesterday, I felt more out of place because I was wearing a powder blue sweater in a sea of white, than because my of European ancestry. (I didn't get the "wear white" memo.) The thing that struck me was how ordinary everyone was. Father's walked with their young sons on their shoulders. Pretty mothers proudly pushed strollers with infants somehow sleeping through the mêlée. Old men with weathered faces walked solemnly with their signs. Grandmothers waved American flags. Teenage girls were laughing, all too aware that they were attracting the attention of the shy young men marching behind them. Row after row of ordinary people walked by, who had taken the day off from work, or had given up a precious day off, to march in solidarity for something as basic as justice.
I was glad that my companion and I had chosen to "stay put" and wait to join the march at the very end. That way we really got a grasp of the enormity of the event. For over three hours, a procession that spanned sidewalks and street, continued past us at 4th and Broadway. We did a calculation of people per row and row per minute to come up with almost 500,000 people. Today I learned that Spring Street and Main Street were also filled with marchers, so estimates closer to a million could be realistic.
I was impressed by how "on message" the marchers were. There was no mistaking that this event was about the injustice of HR4437. It would be a safe bet that no one there caught Bush's radio address where he said America can be both a welcoming society and a lawful society. Karl Rove will be dismayed to hear that many of the handwritten signs clearly tied Bush to the Sesenbrenner Bill. I don't think the GOP should count on the Latino vote this November.
As the ranks marching by finally thinned, we took up the rear until we neared the throng at City Hall. Feeling tired and hungry, we turned down a side street and perched on a wall to rest and eat our sandwiches. I noticed that a middle-aged woman sitting on the same wall seemed to be fighting back tears. I slid closer to her and started a conversation. She told me that fifteen years ago she'd paid someone $500 to get to this country and that after working ten years taking care of other people's children, she had finally saved enough money to bring two of her own sons here - they were 18 and 19 years old by then. She regretted missing so much of their growing up, but it was impossible for her to provide for them in Mexico. Both sons now work as laborers. Her husband works in a factory. One son remains in Mexico and she has never seen his two children.
She was thinking about that when she looked so sad -- thinking about never being able to go home without risking not being able to get back here. Her story is commonplace for undocumented workers, but nonetheless heartbreaking. I asked her about healthcare. They have no coverage. "We just cannot get sick," she replied resolutely.
"What about when you get old?" I asked her. "You will not get any Social Security. How will you survive?"
"We cannot get too old to work," she said, as if saying it would stave off old age.
I asked her what her name was. "Carmen."
"Ah, my grandmother's name was Carmella," I tell her, feeling that precious thread of shared humanity between us.
Carmen's face lit up. She felt it too. "Your grandmother was from Mexico?" she asked. I guess I didn't look as out of place as I had imagined.
"Italy," I replied and in that moment the stories of the difficult life my mother's mother endured, in another time when Italians were called Waps and Guineas, came to mind.
Why does every generation need to have a scapegoat? Can't we be the generation that rises above this cruelty? How many of the 239 Representatives who voted to approve HR4437 have grandparents like mine, who endured racial hatred, so that their grandchild could grow up in a country where they could get elected to serve in Congress?
After our short break, my friend and I continued walking to Union Station and crossed over Hwy 101. To our astonishment the march had morphed itself there into the ultimate freeway blog. All five overpasses were filled with people holding their banners over the sides, waving American flags and shouting "Si se puede!" (Yes, we can!) Others lined the sides between the overpasses while the traffic crawled below. There's no way of knowing if the cacophony of horns coming from the cars and trucks below was in approval or not, but it inspired the demonstrators to ever more spirited chanting.
I knew I was witnessing something historic. We've been asking when the American people will finally wake up out of their stupor. Participation in the peace demonstrations last weekend was disappointing. What will it take for the masses to finally feel outraged?
The answer was there before me, shouting "Si, se puede!" from the overpasses of 101. The most marginalized among us have found their voice and it is strong and jubilant! You can't keep people oppressed forever, sooner or later there's bound to be that moment of spontaneous combustion!
To learn more about my campaign for U.S. Congress in California's 49th District, visit www.DREAMofJEENIforCONGRESS.com.