Why I Marched for Immigration Reform
Mark the time. Today, Monday April 10, 2006, 125,000 Phoenicians marched through the streets of downtown Phoenix in an effort to call attention to the need for progressive, comprehensive, and sensible immigration reform.
I participated in this march and rally for two reasons:
- I believe in the cause, on various levels
- I yearn to understand how such massive events come together so quickly
Ed, a friend of mine, invited me to go to the march with him. In fact, my initial reasoning for accepting his invitation was just that... he asked. And by him inviting me, I became thoroughly intrigued in how such a grass roots marketing effort could spread so far on such short notice. This appeals directly to the closet sociologist in me.
In a society where everyone is supposedly so busy with work, family, and life in general, how can almost 10% of a major metropolitan city arrange to miss a work day, congregate downtown, and with a unified message march through the streets?
Whether I agree or disagree with a given message or viewpoint, protests in general fascinate me. Especially after being in China for this past spring break (Pictures from my China trip are here), the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 have piqued my interest.
The group of ASU students that I caravaned with all met up at the Phoenix Public Library. From there, we walked down McDowell to McDowell and 16th Ave. We rallied there for about an hour until the March got going. We turned southeast onto Grand Ave, and followed Grand to Van Buren and 7th Ave. There, we headed east on Van Buren until turning south onto 3rd Ave. Now in the heart of downtown, passing county, state, and federal buildings, we took 3rd Ave to Washington, and Washinton west to the State Capital. Once we arrived at the capital building, we rallied a bit, rested a bit and headed back towards the cars. All in all about 12 miles of walking!
Coverage of the Phoenix Immigration Reform march can be found in the State Press as well as the Arizona Republic.
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