Rally: Families Belong Together
Jun. 30th, 2018 04:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebToday there were rallies all over the country with the theme Keep Families Together [and Free]. (The updated theme is due to the updated reality where it has been decided not to separate asylum-seeking family members at the border anymore but to lock them up together, though sadly there is still no provision for the folks who have already been separated.)
I am not a fan of crowds or rallies. But I wanted to help make it clear to the country and to the world that there are a lot of people in the US who still feel that asylum seekers should be welcomed and cared for, not treated like violent criminals or worse.
Most of the talking was done in both English and Spanish, which was nice. (Some of the original speeches were English with Spanish interpreters, but the reverse was also true.) There were personal stories. And eye-rolly rally cries.
I like to look at the signs people bring. Some were simple and on point:
* Seeking asylum is not a crime
* Reunite the families immediately
* Protect people not borders
Some were heart-rending
* Executive orders won't undo child trauma
* What if this was your child? (shows a kid behind bars made out of the red stripes of an up-ended flag; the kid is holding a teddy bear with both hands, and the teddy bear is outside the bars)
* Stop abusing kids under my flag
Some I had trouble with:
* We are all immigrants - technically the Native Americans also immigrated (from Asia), but this still rubbed me the wrong way
* Immigrants make America great - many do, some don't
* Families belong together - not if parts of the families are abusing other parts of the families
Some were pretty extremist, mean, or overgeneralizing:
* Melt ICE / I drink my water warm; f*** ICE
* You wanna separate families? Kick yours out of the White House.
* You can't claim family values if you don't value families
* The only minority destroying America is the top 1%
* It's never the good guys stealing kids
* All in all, you're just another prick in the wall
There were also familiar-looking army-green jackets with "I really do care" painted on the back in white. And I really liked the message on this shirt, despite the misspelling:
(In case you can't read it, it says "Reunite! a) reunite children and parents, b) husbands and wives, c) urban and rural, d) left and right, e) all of the above. Vote.")
I noticed one couple walking by with a sign that said something like "Thank you border patrol agents, police," and other people I did not expect to see on a sign like that. On the other side it said something like "I am a Hispanic Conservative. Ask me any question you want!"
I pondered that for a while and then decided to seek them out. I found them; still no one was talking to them. So I walked over and said to the one holding the sign, "I admire your courage. My question is 'What do you most want me to know?'" At first the man said he justed wanted to answer my questions. Eventually he also said:
* Not all conservatives like this.
* Trump is not a true conservative.
* There was a high school on the border with a lot of people coming over to sell drugs--when they built a wall, crime went down.
* Sometimes the people who bring children across the border are not their close relatives.
* Child separation has been going on for years [I really thought it started with Trump's zero-tolerance policy and told him so] and it's for the safety of the children; some of the adults that come across the border should not be trusted with children [can't they have guards?]
* Anyone who has strongly reasoned beliefs is more conservative than they think.
Once I started talking to the man (the woman didn't say much while I was there), other people also came up. I was reminded of that thing I heard where one person taking a stand may or may not make a difference, but when a second person joins in, that can lead to a lot more people joining in. Some things that other people said:
* One guy lived near the high school that the guy with the sign talked about and he said when they built that wall, 80% of the shops had to close down because most of their business had come from Mexicans. That great decrease in the number of people in town is what led to the decrease in crime.
* One problem is that this issue was moved from the civil courts (which do have enough judges to make timely decisions) to federal courts (which do not).
* Immigration rates, both legal and illegal, have been dropping since 2007 (or maybe 2009).
* Anyone with strongly reasoned beliefs is more liberal than they think.
Everyone was quite civil. After a while, I left in order to sit down in the shade. The whole time I was at the rally he had people talking to him.
On the way in, people were passing out stickers and I took one. They were the size and shape of large address labels and said "Families Belong Together." There was a graphic of two arms, a yellow one coming from the left, a blue one coming from the right, and a heart in the middle, between their reaching hands. Later someone asked me where I had gotten my sticker and I told him. Then I got a clue and said he could have mine because he probably wanted it more. That's when he showed me his little book, the cover of which was covered with other stickers he had collected.
After a little more than an hour and half, the rally was still going strong, but I left. (I heard later it was scheduled for noon to 3:00.) I felt kind of used up. It was still very crowded.
In conclusion, I did indeed ever-so-slightly increase attendance. But I also helped encourage people to talk to the conservative, which was fun, and a guy got to have a sticker he wanted because of me. Also, I signed a couple of petitions.
I don't like rallies and don't want to go. But it's certainly a way to not stand silent in the face of atrocities. It's not the same as blocking the vehicles that are taking people away--I'm not that brave. RAICES is a society providing lawyers to immigrants--donating to them a way to make a real difference. I don't know how much it costs to defend a single client--surely a lot, but a lot of small donations add up. No one can afford to support everything that is important, but just passing this information on. (I never donate directly but through a third party to stay anonymous and to save the organization the money they would otherwise spend to give them even more.)
I am not a fan of crowds or rallies. But I wanted to help make it clear to the country and to the world that there are a lot of people in the US who still feel that asylum seekers should be welcomed and cared for, not treated like violent criminals or worse.
Most of the talking was done in both English and Spanish, which was nice. (Some of the original speeches were English with Spanish interpreters, but the reverse was also true.) There were personal stories. And eye-rolly rally cries.
I like to look at the signs people bring. Some were simple and on point:
* Seeking asylum is not a crime
* Reunite the families immediately
* Protect people not borders
Some were heart-rending
* Executive orders won't undo child trauma
* What if this was your child? (shows a kid behind bars made out of the red stripes of an up-ended flag; the kid is holding a teddy bear with both hands, and the teddy bear is outside the bars)
* Stop abusing kids under my flag
Some I had trouble with:
* We are all immigrants - technically the Native Americans also immigrated (from Asia), but this still rubbed me the wrong way
* Immigrants make America great - many do, some don't
* Families belong together - not if parts of the families are abusing other parts of the families
Some were pretty extremist, mean, or overgeneralizing:
* Melt ICE / I drink my water warm; f*** ICE
* You wanna separate families? Kick yours out of the White House.
* You can't claim family values if you don't value families
* The only minority destroying America is the top 1%
* It's never the good guys stealing kids
* All in all, you're just another prick in the wall
There were also familiar-looking army-green jackets with "I really do care" painted on the back in white. And I really liked the message on this shirt, despite the misspelling:
(In case you can't read it, it says "Reunite! a) reunite children and parents, b) husbands and wives, c) urban and rural, d) left and right, e) all of the above. Vote.")
I noticed one couple walking by with a sign that said something like "Thank you border patrol agents, police," and other people I did not expect to see on a sign like that. On the other side it said something like "I am a Hispanic Conservative. Ask me any question you want!"
I pondered that for a while and then decided to seek them out. I found them; still no one was talking to them. So I walked over and said to the one holding the sign, "I admire your courage. My question is 'What do you most want me to know?'" At first the man said he justed wanted to answer my questions. Eventually he also said:
* Not all conservatives like this.
* Trump is not a true conservative.
* There was a high school on the border with a lot of people coming over to sell drugs--when they built a wall, crime went down.
* Sometimes the people who bring children across the border are not their close relatives.
* Child separation has been going on for years [I really thought it started with Trump's zero-tolerance policy and told him so] and it's for the safety of the children; some of the adults that come across the border should not be trusted with children [can't they have guards?]
* Anyone who has strongly reasoned beliefs is more conservative than they think.
Once I started talking to the man (the woman didn't say much while I was there), other people also came up. I was reminded of that thing I heard where one person taking a stand may or may not make a difference, but when a second person joins in, that can lead to a lot more people joining in. Some things that other people said:
* One guy lived near the high school that the guy with the sign talked about and he said when they built that wall, 80% of the shops had to close down because most of their business had come from Mexicans. That great decrease in the number of people in town is what led to the decrease in crime.
* One problem is that this issue was moved from the civil courts (which do have enough judges to make timely decisions) to federal courts (which do not).
* Immigration rates, both legal and illegal, have been dropping since 2007 (or maybe 2009).
* Anyone with strongly reasoned beliefs is more liberal than they think.
Everyone was quite civil. After a while, I left in order to sit down in the shade. The whole time I was at the rally he had people talking to him.
On the way in, people were passing out stickers and I took one. They were the size and shape of large address labels and said "Families Belong Together." There was a graphic of two arms, a yellow one coming from the left, a blue one coming from the right, and a heart in the middle, between their reaching hands. Later someone asked me where I had gotten my sticker and I told him. Then I got a clue and said he could have mine because he probably wanted it more. That's when he showed me his little book, the cover of which was covered with other stickers he had collected.
After a little more than an hour and half, the rally was still going strong, but I left. (I heard later it was scheduled for noon to 3:00.) I felt kind of used up. It was still very crowded.
In conclusion, I did indeed ever-so-slightly increase attendance. But I also helped encourage people to talk to the conservative, which was fun, and a guy got to have a sticker he wanted because of me. Also, I signed a couple of petitions.
I don't like rallies and don't want to go. But it's certainly a way to not stand silent in the face of atrocities. It's not the same as blocking the vehicles that are taking people away--I'm not that brave. RAICES is a society providing lawyers to immigrants--donating to them a way to make a real difference. I don't know how much it costs to defend a single client--surely a lot, but a lot of small donations add up. No one can afford to support everything that is important, but just passing this information on. (I never donate directly but through a third party to stay anonymous and to save the organization the money they would otherwise spend to give them even more.)
Photo Experiment
on 2018-06-30 11:28 pm (UTC)Well, at least you can't see his misspelling, and I have chosen not to reproduce it.
Grr, apparently I have uploaded another image already and in spite of this horrible quality, "You have used 6.616 MB (1.3%) of your 500.0 MB quota." I get to have less than 100 low-quality pictures? This not at all exciting to me.
Re: Photo Experiment
on 2018-07-03 08:15 pm (UTC)Thanks
on 2018-07-09 04:05 pm (UTC)Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life