The U.S.A. is a remarkable country. Is there another country in the world that would allow people that are in this country illegally to protest en masse in the public square? I don’t think so.
But that is exactly what happened yesterday. An estimated one thousand people marched four blocks east from Renwick Dr. on Bellaire Blvd to Chimney Rock and then almost one mile north to Gulfton, where they entered Barnett Bayland Park to continue their rally. I have no idea how many of the marchers were actually illegally in this country but presumably there were some – why else would they chant “Undocumented and unafraid” over and over. And over. Below is a video I took of most of the march as they turned into the park.
Waiting for them as they arrived at the park was a counter-protest of sorts. I counted 38 people, so we’ll round that up to 40. Both sides were down considerably from previous years. In a brief conversation with Duane Bradley, GM at KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston, he was expecting five thousand marchers and had printed up five thousand 5 1/2” x 17” flyers to pass out. Oh well, you can always use flyers that say “¡Sí, Se Puede!”, right?
The counter-protesters have started up a new organization, called Stolen Lives Quilt. You can visit their website for more information but basically they take photographs of U.S. citizens that have been killed by illegal immigrants, transfer them to blankets with the information about their deaths, and then display them at events like the May Day rally. I’m still not sure what I think of this. On the one hand, I understand the anger that a loved one would feel towards the person that caused the death. On the other hand, does the citizenship status of a criminal really matter? And then there is the matter of hearing angry, vitriolic yelling from some, not all, of the counter-protesters standing behind the quilts. It just seemed out of place. Perhaps they should save the quilts for candlelight vigils or something. I mean, seriously, look at this quilt:
Now click on that quilt and look at a picture of the same quilt with a vulgar sign behind it. It ruins the effect, at least for me. Like I said, I’m still not sure what to think about the project but I know that, at least for me and my wife, the anger of some of the counter-protesters took away from the memory of the people that the quilts were honoring.
As for the marchers, they would garner far more sympathy and support if they weren’t so arrogant in their presentation of their issue. Anyone can sympathize with the plight of a starving family in Honduras making their way to the land of freedom. Very few can sympathize with public displays of flaunting the laws of our land. Waving Mexican flags only hurts their cause. Chanting arrogantly that you are undocumented and you have no fear of reprisal turns people against your cause. Leaving the public park that you were protesting in full of trash does not endear you to the community of taxpayers that are funding that park.
But worst of all, pretending that illegal immigration is harmless to our society generates pushback. When we read that 70{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of all illegal immigrants in Texas are on one form or another of public welfare, that our schools are in danger of being closed because of the amount of money spent educating children brought here illegally, and then see the arrogance of marching publicly, proclaiming that U.S. citizens are wrong to want to protect a fragile economy, it is but a short jump to attributing the violence of drug cartels to all illegal immigrants – after all, if you are arrogant enough to flaunt the fact that you are breaking one law, it is easy to conclude that you have no respect for any authority.
I’d suggest that instead of arrogantly flaunting our laws, perhaps your organizers could set up a day to clean the park. Ask the City of Houston if your plumbers and carpenters can open the restrooms and repair the damage that has been done – perhaps your community didn’t make them unusable but take the high road and repair them anyway. Pick up the trash that is a foot high in some areas. In other words, take pride in your neighborhood. You’d be amazed at what that would do for your reputation.
It was a frustrating experience.
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