Insomniac's blog

It has been quite awhile since something has pissed me off enough to mount my soapbox and have at it. Being forewarned is being prepared, so here goes...

Last night I went to a rally in my hometown to protest the bill currently being debated in Congress concerning U.S. immigration--specifically in regards to illegal immigrants. The rally was quite a sight to behold. My hometown is 22% Mexican-Americans and the rest are a mixed bag of mostly Dutch and European ancestry. Anyhow, I went on down to the rally and I was amazed at what I saw. Several hundreds of Mexican-Americans gathered with a little more than a handful of "white" Americans and protested against the bill. It was an amazing night. I did feel a little out of place though since the speakers that were there only spoke in Spanish and I don't understand Spanish. However, I was struck when the crowd began singing different songs like De Colores. While I didn't know the songs, all the voices joining in unity was amazing. I wish I could have understood the meaning of the songs beforehand. I did meet a few younger people who were nice enough to translate a few things for me. At one point the crowd starting chanting something like "Se Sequira", at least that is what it sounded like. One of the ladies next to me told me that it meant "Yes, we can do it".

Being an outsider to the group last night gave me a fresh perspective on how hard it must be for immigrants in America. First of all, everyone here expects immigrants to be able to speak, read, and write in English. Secondly, many so-called patriots stereotype immigrants (especially Hispanic immigrants) as welfare recipients and burdens on our tax dollars, which isn't true. Thirdly, a lot of Americans like to blame immigrants for their own loss of jobs---never mind the effects of globalization, economic downturns, and the shift from an industrial manufacturing economy to a technology and service economy. My brief studies in American History has confirmed that Americans like to continually blame others for our problems. The Irish immigrants were blamed in the Antebellum era for the lack of jobs in urban environments, the Southern blacks were blamed later, the Asian immigrants were viewed as "foreigners" for too many years after their legal status, and after September 11, 2001, all Middle-Easterners were suspected of undermining the government and terrorizing U.S. citizens. Frankly, all the scapegoating by Americans onto certain ethnic and racial groups just really pisses me off! I mean, seriously, America is the country it is today because we have been an immigrant country. I think some of our so-called "patriots" and politicians need to remember what places like Ellis Island stood for.

Anyhow, I support open immigration and I urge other Americans who may be reading this to contact your Senators to tell them to vote against the new immigration bill.