What gets Americans to stand up and get active? Does the illegal war do it? Does the endangerment of our children and the world by the actions of the US military do it? Does the infringement of our rights as they erode under the assault of the Bush administration do it? Some. Not enough. But this last week, immigration did it.

About 500,000 people rallied in the Los Angeles area to protest proposed legislation that would make it a criminal act to be an illegal alien in the United States. No longer would an illegal immigrant simply be deported, they would be subject to arrest and imprisonment and on release from prison they would be subject to deportation. It is a bad law. It is a stupid law. And it inflamed the population so much that half a million people in LA alone turned out to protest. That is a huge rally for any cause in laid back southern California.

What is there about this issue that it was able to incite such a passionate response from the people when a war that is depleting this country of all the things that make it a desirable place to immigrate to, illegally or otherwise, is not enough to gather a half million people in any of the major US cities on the anniversary of the war? As activists trying to stop this war we need to know what it is that generates this kind of response in the people. We need to be able to tap into that passion to stop the world wreckers from continuing to destroy our country and the world.

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would make it a felony for someone to be in the US illegally. It would turn harvest workers into felons for doing work that most American citizens will not willingly do. It would criminalize children whose parents bring them into the country illegally. It is a bad bill and it is being pushed under the guise of that old bugaboo – Homeland Security. We are “securing our borders” by making the domestic workers and migrant workers into felons.

And we must not forget that fence they are planning to build along the US-Mexico border. Perhaps that’s another Haliburton contract. I can feel my own emotions rising in response to this ridiculous and inhumane law. Every bit as much as it rises about the war and occupation in Iraq. Why is that?

As activists we need to look at this issue that has risen out of the morass and stirred the people enough that 500,000 got up and protested in one US city. Acts of war have not generated this much response since the beginning of the war. Rolling back the gains in civil rights has not generated this kind of protest. Reversing the gains in protecting the habitat we depend upon for our survival does not generate this kind of passionate response in the people. What is there about this issue, at this time that got such a response?

They estimate that there are 11 million people living in the US illegally at this time. That is not enough to stir this kind of passion on most topics. We do not get this kind of response to the glass ceiling that affects women in the work force and that’s a hell of a lot more than 11 million. We do not get this kind of response to the issue of choice and how a woman’s rights to make her own decisions are being eroded, and again that involves a lot more than 11 million of us. So it is not the numbers that stirred this to the point that 500,000 LA folk got up out of their armchairs and by god protested!

What happened? What is there about this issue that got us going? I am not an immigrant nor have my family been immigrants for well over 150 years. Every branch of my family has been here since before the War Between the States. So it’s not that this issue touches me on a personal level. Yet it does stir my passions every bit as much as it does my fellow Californians in LA. Why?

I don’t have the answer for this but I do know there is something there for us to look at. It is essential that we find a way to mobilize the people of this country if we are ever going to have a true say in how it is run. We have to find a way to activate our people if we are going to determine what American foreign policy will be, what we will use as a cause for armed intervention, and the many other things we must take a hand in deciding. The only way we can take a hand is to TAKE a hand. To do that we must find a way to mobilize the people of this country. So let’s look at this issue carefully and see if we can determine what happened here that got such a passionate response.

I invite comments. You can send them to me c/o editors@mytown.ca.

Letter to the Editor, Larry Sakin, 28 March 2006

Letter to the Editor, John McCarthy, 29 March 2006

Leter to the Editor, Michael Marino, 30 March 2006