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.
yeah thats called assimilation, ever notice EMERGENCY signs in both English and Spanish? EMERGENCY AND EMERGENCIA I contend that if your able to READ Spanish.....and there's lots of doubt there..reading EMERGENCY with the accompanying RED CROSS...should suffice
Key operative phrases:
"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."
So all of those websites claiming that the Southwest belongs to Mexico, and telling us Gringoes that WE are the illegal aliens aren't real. Right??
"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?"
If so many of them are bilingual, then why do we need everything printed in Spanish at the DMV, on our voting ballots, etc??
"You have to think about what images will flash on the evening news."
BINGO. That's what it's all about. What can we do for Katie Couric to spin for us??
"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."
Another BINGO. They don't vote because they are not leggaly entitled to vote! Only US Citizens get to vote!
"They have as much of a stake in helping you and fixing America's impractical immigration policies."
Impractical to whom?? Frankly tougher immigration policies and measures against the invasion from Mexico seems pretty damned practical to me! If our laws are impractical to you, then you might just have a problem.
They are looking for symbolism over substance folks! This strike on May 1st means about as much as a bunch of high schoolers skipping school for a day to go demonstrate. Long on the symbolism, and very short on the substance...
Don't mean shiite...
Deport them now.
Drop the Reconquista Atzlan Sen-HOR-ita a line
crodriguez@denverpost.com.
Good, maybe I can finally go to the store and get in/out within 10 minutes.
Also, I predict April 30th and May 2nd will be a busy shopping day
If a foreign flag represents your culture better than the US flag, then you don't belong here!
Good!
Let 'em stop buying IN MEHICO. Who cares? No one will care here because they do not contribute all that much and they just won't be missed for one day, for a week of days for a month of days.
ILLEGALS need to go home and come back legally, whether from Mexico or Guam. Thats all anyone asks.
We should close our border or strictly control it, make it hard for illegals to get jobs, benefits or anything else. We won't have to round them all up...just be serious about the ones we catch, make big shows like last week's raids, hit employers where it hurts, and sooner or later a lot of them will figure out its not worth it.
Once you start something like that it becomes easier to institute an immigration policy that actually controls who is here and who comes here.
And it shouldn't take "years" to process applications either...thats just numb.
I am holding back several thousands dollars of purchases for May 1. I plan to live May 1 in capitalist, consumerist style.
>>>The think they've already won when the game is actually just beginning.
LOL...so true.
This strike will do a lot toward showing Americans what they truly don't want nor need in this country.
Better yet, how about on May 5th, Americans everywhere block the entrances to welfare offices and emergency rooms, and cut off their frickin benefits for one day! My idea of a strike.
I really am proud to be a Mexican. I always feel bad that Free Republic gets into shouting matches, and people think bad words will fix things. Fighting Irish. Back then in 1847 it was the Irish deserters who joined us in Mexico- Anyway, we are working hard in Mexico to FIX the system in Mexico to make it nice climate for business, and have the spokes of our wheel be industry,and lay aside the centeredness of Army, Social Elite, or the Roman Church. You know it feels good today here in Mee He Co, and I'll probably be the only one buying at Walmart. Someday Americans will understand they tolerated the system, that encouraged illegal border crossing, and it wasn't JUST the fault of the people in Mexico. Try sometime in the USA calling the INS, getting through to talk to someone. All immigration offices are very understaffed, as well as the Border Patrol.
There is a Mexican store down the street from me. Since the only other place to go within walking distance is a Circle K, so I sometimes go there. The first time I went in I tried talking to the butcher and he could not understand ONE word of English. I needed a translator. The lady in charge of the bakery spoke enough English that she gave me a "sample" which turned out to be a whole chorizo/jalapeno/cream cheese type of sandwich. It was wonderful! I guess I left an impression or something, because the next time I came in I was looking for some tortillas. I asked where the big tortillas are in Spanish. The butcher helped me out, watched me for a couple seconds, then asked in a little bit of English how we say tortillas in English. I said, "Tortillas."
BTW, May 1 will determine whether I frequent that store again or not.
If the mex peeps boycott their Arab convenience stores... this will be a day I'd ask the .guv to add to the calendar as a national holiday. Not just lo-mex, but NO-mex shopping.
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