On Friday I managed to get out of the office for lunch. The weather was warm (a balmy 60 degrees!!!) so it made for a nice excuse to take an afternoon walk around the south loop.
I was out for a good 20 minutes when I swung around to Wacker and turned to the south. Out of nowhere I ran up against an enormous wave of people flooding onto Jackson. It was an incredible gathering – thousands and thousands of people. All moving west in a resolute march toward the federal building.
Having no clue what was going on, I stood back and read signs. There were men, women, and children from all walks of life protesting H.R. 4437, the Hastert/Sensenbrenner bill, which is an piece of legislation that could amount to dramatic changes in immigration law.
There’s a funny part of this story and a serious part. I’ll start with the funny…
I sorta ended up protesting with them. Here’s why: I couldn’t figure out how to get back to my building without jumping in with the crowd. There were people flooding down Jackson as far as the eye could see – and my office building is *on* Jackson. At that moment as far as I could tell I was going to have to wait 20 minutes for the enormous march to pass, or join in. So after reading a flyer and establishing that this was not some sort of Nancy Reagan-esque anti-drug event (you know, with Punky Brewster up front), I snuck in between a big group of Irish men and a huge Mexican church group and began to walk down Jackson. I rallied with my peeps for a good three blocks before sneaking back in my building. (Yea, yea, okay, I know I’m weird.)
Here’s the serious part: I suspect that many of you, like me, probably had no clue about the Hastert/Sensenbrenner bill, and its counterpoint, the McCain/Kennedy bill. They truly are worth learning about. While I was walking along with those passionate sincere people, it really embarrassed me that I had absolutely no awareness on the issue. In fact, I think the news report that I paid the most attention to on Friday morning was probably the announcement that Chloe Dao won Project Runway. (Shame shame shame!)
In any case, I really must salute the Mexican Homeland Federation for organizing the march. It was really well run, good-spirited, and succeeded in its goal of education and awareness – at least with me.
I was out for a good 20 minutes when I swung around to Wacker and turned to the south. Out of nowhere I ran up against an enormous wave of people flooding onto Jackson. It was an incredible gathering – thousands and thousands of people. All moving west in a resolute march toward the federal building.
Having no clue what was going on, I stood back and read signs. There were men, women, and children from all walks of life protesting H.R. 4437, the Hastert/Sensenbrenner bill, which is an piece of legislation that could amount to dramatic changes in immigration law.
There’s a funny part of this story and a serious part. I’ll start with the funny…
I sorta ended up protesting with them. Here’s why: I couldn’t figure out how to get back to my building without jumping in with the crowd. There were people flooding down Jackson as far as the eye could see – and my office building is *on* Jackson. At that moment as far as I could tell I was going to have to wait 20 minutes for the enormous march to pass, or join in. So after reading a flyer and establishing that this was not some sort of Nancy Reagan-esque anti-drug event (you know, with Punky Brewster up front), I snuck in between a big group of Irish men and a huge Mexican church group and began to walk down Jackson. I rallied with my peeps for a good three blocks before sneaking back in my building. (Yea, yea, okay, I know I’m weird.)
Here’s the serious part: I suspect that many of you, like me, probably had no clue about the Hastert/Sensenbrenner bill, and its counterpoint, the McCain/Kennedy bill. They truly are worth learning about. While I was walking along with those passionate sincere people, it really embarrassed me that I had absolutely no awareness on the issue. In fact, I think the news report that I paid the most attention to on Friday morning was probably the announcement that Chloe Dao won Project Runway. (Shame shame shame!)
In any case, I really must salute the Mexican Homeland Federation for organizing the march. It was really well run, good-spirited, and succeeded in its goal of education and awareness – at least with me.
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