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May 1 strike offers chance to win minds
The Denver Post ^ | 4/25/06 | Cindy Rodriguez

Posted on 04/25/2006 7:37:44 AM PDT by Millee

The May 1 national strike - dubbed "The Great American Boycott" - is less than a week away.

Organizers are urging Latinos, immigrant workers and their supporters to skip work and not spend money that day.

The stakes are high. What happens that day could alter public opinion for better or worse.

It has the potential to raise awareness of immigrants' collective contribution to the national economy and persuade Congress to offer a path to citizenship.

Or it could go another way: It could anger the owners of businesses that already support these workers, and turn off people who might have taken their side.

It's up to the demonstrators.

How do they want America to view them?

Do they want to be seen as courageous, industrious people who love America and are working to make this country a better place? Or as foreigners not willing to assimilate?

Here's the advice political strategists offer to protesters:

Next Monday, if your boss needs you, don't skip work. As a compromise, urge him to let you circulate letters to workers addressed to key members of Congress.

Those of you who plan to march or attend a rally, dress in white, but leave the Mexican flags at home. Ditto on Salvadoran, Peruvian, Guatemalan, Honduran or any other foreign flags.

Carrying foreign flags hurts the cause. It turns off many Americans who view it as a sign of disrespect.

AM radio talk show hosts seized on it during earlier rallies, branding protesters as anti-American. Paranoid extremists, who foolishly think there is some master plan to "reconquer" the Southwest, are forwarding e-mails including photographs of marchers carrying Mexican flags as proof.

Americans who have been here several generations don't have a connection to their ancestors' homeland and therefore don't understand why Latinos wave foreign flags. They don't view it the way you do, as a way to display cultural pride. The see it as allegiance to a country you left.

It explains why Congressman Tom Tancredo told a Denver Post reporter earlier this month he wishes the rallies would continue: "Nothing that I've seen in the recent past could have helped our cause more than the display of hundreds of thousands of people waving Mexican flags."

Instead, drape yourself with Old Glory. Sing "The Star Spangled Banner." Carry banners that say "I love America!" not "América, te amo."

The signs must be in English.

This is not a day for confusing Americans who might assume you don't know English. They feel threatened by that.

They don't understand that a majority of the marchers are bilingual but prefer communicating in their dominant language. How could they understand, considering most of them are monolingual?

Keep your chants in English. Drop the "Sí, se puedes."

You have to think about what images will flash on the evening news. Will it be marchers chanting in Spanish? It's smarter to show America that - just as Latinos were forced to learn Spanish after Spain colonized our countries - you are mastering English.

If César Chávez were alive, he'd tell rally organizers to come up with new chants and new strategies.

Also, reach out to other groups so this isn't portrayed as a Latino rally. Latinos may make up almost 15 percent of the U.S. population, but less than half of that population votes. To succeed, these rallies must be multi-ethnic.

If you decide to rally, ask your non-Latino friends, co-workers and even bosses to join you. Tell them that you need their help.

They have as much of a stake in helping you and fixing America's impractical immigration policies.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: aztlaniscoming; reconquista; unodemayo
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They have as much of a stake in helping you and fixing America's impractical immigration policies.How laughable. Who the hell follows the policies anyway? Not the illegals. Not the employers and CERTAINLY not our elected officials.
1 posted on 04/25/2006 7:37:45 AM PDT by Millee
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To: Millee

I have advice for the illegals that will take much less space...


Get the hell out and come back in through the front door when your number is called!!!!


2 posted on 04/25/2006 7:39:41 AM PDT by Paloma_55 (Which part of "Common Sense" do you not understand???)
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To: Millee
They don't understand that a majority of the marchers are bilingual but prefer communicating in their dominant language.

Like when they're talking about your women while standing behind you in Wal-Mart.

3 posted on 04/25/2006 7:40:15 AM PDT by Sir Gawain
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: Paloma_55

I agree.


5 posted on 04/25/2006 7:40:44 AM PDT by BMC1 (Democrats are STUCK ON STUPID, MASTERS OF DECEPTION AND CULTURE OF TREASON.)
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To: Millee

What a joke.

Most of the Latinos take May 1st off in the southwestern states, anyway.


6 posted on 04/25/2006 7:41:11 AM PDT by Nabber
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To: Nabber

Oops, I meant May 5th, Cinco de Mayo.

One more day that week, big deal.


7 posted on 04/25/2006 7:42:40 AM PDT by Nabber
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To: Millee

"Paranoid extremists, who foolishly think there is some master plan to "reconquer" the Southwest, are forwarding e-mails including photographs of marchers carrying Mexican flags as proof."

Oh. Then I guess all those thousands of signs about "get out of our country," and all these organizations talking about the Reconquista, really don't exist, Senorita Rodriguez?

}:-)4


8 posted on 04/25/2006 7:42:57 AM PDT by Moose4 (Please don't call me "white trash." I prefer "Caucasian recyclable.")
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To: Millee

GREAT NEWS!

Now I can go into a Home Depot at least for one day without having to stand in line waiting for a friggin translater


9 posted on 04/25/2006 7:43:21 AM PDT by Fighting Irish
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To: Millee
Paranoid extremists, who foolishly think there is some master plan to "reconquer" the Southwest

This comment shows how uninformed this skank is.

10 posted on 04/25/2006 7:43:38 AM PDT by Sir Gawain
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To: Millee

Funny little story.

I was talking to a friend of mine and complaining about housework. I declared there should be little elves that will clean my house for me.


She said, I think we already have them. They're called Mexicans.


11 posted on 04/25/2006 7:43:48 AM PDT by Hoodlum91 (It's my FRanniversary!)
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To: All

Did they back off the part about kids boycotting school on May 1st?


12 posted on 04/25/2006 7:44:32 AM PDT by uncitizen
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To: Millee

Here's the truth, Cindy.....

An ugly reality
Apr 18, 2006
by Thomas Sowell

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2006/04/18/193984.html


13 posted on 04/25/2006 7:45:33 AM PDT by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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To: Millee

"They don't understand that a majority of the marchers are bilingual but prefer communicating in their dominant language"

First, many of them are NOT bilingual. Second, calling Spanish their "dominant" language its part of the problem. They're here, they want to stay, their dominant language should be ENGLISH!!

My immigrant grandparents were forbidden to speak anything other than English, even at home. They were Americans now.


14 posted on 04/25/2006 7:47:26 AM PDT by Hoodlum91 (It's my FRanniversary!)
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To: Millee
What is this tart, whose tile is 'staff columnist', doing using her newspaper column to give advice to the illegals how to dupe the lazy and stupid gabachos?

What's wrong with me? She's not a tart. She's an unbiased objective news-reporting professional.



15 posted on 04/25/2006 7:47:50 AM PDT by x1stcav (Illegals go home! I'll mow the damned lawn myself!)
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To: Millee
it will have a an effect alright...a backlash
It will prompt more and more resentment, and will make it easier for lazy-a&& politicians to enforce the laws already in place and start deporting.
Every time I hear someone say. "we have no where to "place"
illegals".. a simple guarded hanger at a little used air base with a few transport planes is real easy to imagine.
Here's a taco, and your boarding pass, have a nice day.

Doogle
16 posted on 04/25/2006 7:48:04 AM PDT by Doogle (USAF ...8thTFW...408MMS..Ubon ,Thailand..."69"..Night Line Delivery ..AMMO!!)
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To: Millee
They don't understand that a majority of the marchers are bilingual but prefer communicating in their dominant language. How could they understand, considering most of them are monolingual?

My sister-in-law is Mexican (her family is legal,too). She says her family speaks Spanish at home, but English everywhere else. She told me most people cannot even tell that she is Mexican, since her accent is so faint.

It's funny that I am half-Mexican and speak only high school Spanish. I am third generation and my mom never bothered speaking Spanish unless she was saying things I couldn't hear to her sisters.

17 posted on 04/25/2006 7:48:26 AM PDT by HungarianGypsy
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To: Hoodlum91

That's awesome hoody! That's how it should be.


18 posted on 04/25/2006 7:48:32 AM PDT by Millee
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To: Sir Gawain
Like when they're talking about your women while standing behind you in Wal-Mart.

You should just sit there and look like you know exactly what they are talking about. It usually gets them to shut up quickly.

19 posted on 04/25/2006 7:50:07 AM PDT by HungarianGypsy
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To: Millee

Lipstick on a pig


20 posted on 04/25/2006 7:50:19 AM PDT by VanShuyten (I'd rather be in a hotspring)
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