the May Day marches
May. 1st, 2007 04:07 pmSo. The May Day marches. A "hot button issue" they're calling it. (I fucking hate the news hysteria.) There's one happening now in Chicago, not as big as last year's, but pretty big. And a lot of the people are really pissed off by the ultra-militaristic show of force that Immigration and Customs Enforcement brought into Chicago last week.
I must report that the only time I have personally seen that kind of activity or that kind of show of force with armed soldiers with machine guns is in 1985, when I visited (then-Communist) East Berlin with my West German cousins, before the Wall came down. There were armed soldiers openly toting guns at every U-bahn train station we stopped at (and many where the train passed through, not stopping). And that's what ICE did in Chicago last week, locking a bunch of people (including women & children) in a small shopping mall.
So. This is what America has come to under George W. I never doubted it would happen -- never voted for the bastard (or his daddy) either.
For everyone who thinks they don't need to care because they're not immigrants, and they're not Mexican --
First they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up for me.
--attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)
Now, substitute "anti-war demonstrators" for "Socialists," "voting rights activists" for "Trade Unionists," and "Mexicans" for "Jews" -- and that's America right now.
And there's not a doubt in my mind that if Germany or Greece or Poland were just across a border from America -- instead of across an ocean -- that my German, Greek, and Polish grandparents would have snuck in any way they could, just like many Mexicans have.
As for the bullshit of immigrants taking jobs away from Americans -- does that explain why the middle classes of India and China expand while ours shrinks?
I don't think so.
I must report that the only time I have personally seen that kind of activity or that kind of show of force with armed soldiers with machine guns is in 1985, when I visited (then-Communist) East Berlin with my West German cousins, before the Wall came down. There were armed soldiers openly toting guns at every U-bahn train station we stopped at (and many where the train passed through, not stopping). And that's what ICE did in Chicago last week, locking a bunch of people (including women & children) in a small shopping mall.
So. This is what America has come to under George W. I never doubted it would happen -- never voted for the bastard (or his daddy) either.
For everyone who thinks they don't need to care because they're not immigrants, and they're not Mexican --
First they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up for me.
--attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)
Now, substitute "anti-war demonstrators" for "Socialists," "voting rights activists" for "Trade Unionists," and "Mexicans" for "Jews" -- and that's America right now.
And there's not a doubt in my mind that if Germany or Greece or Poland were just across a border from America -- instead of across an ocean -- that my German, Greek, and Polish grandparents would have snuck in any way they could, just like many Mexicans have.
As for the bullshit of immigrants taking jobs away from Americans -- does that explain why the middle classes of India and China expand while ours shrinks?
I don't think so.