More Thoughts on Sensenbrenner-King, 4/14/06

30,000 people marched in Washington, D.C. 50,000 in Phoenix. 100,000 in Denver. 300,000 in Chicago. 500,000 in Los Angeles. 

It seems as though the global economic vehicle piloted by the United States is giving way to something new, inspired and driven.  That "something" might very well be a genuine human rights movement that transcends barriers and calls into question the United States as a partner, rather than profiteer, in social and economic development.  What might develop is a redefinition of what it means to be "American"—what defines the character of the diminishing middle class and what tenets we can still cling to within an equally diminishing "American Dream".

The turn-out isn't a surprise: it's a wake-up call.  If 500,000 people were going to come out in support of immigrant rights, it was going to be in Los Angeles, the city with the second-highest population of Mexicans, even if outside of Mexico.  The religious, social and political left came out in full stomp, galvanized by the Sensenbrenner-King bill. The pundits report that a "massive immigrant civil rights struggle" is emerging, almost in dialectical opposition to the "vast right-wing conspiracy".

With propositions 187 in California and 200 in Arizona, immigrant rights advocates coalesced to opposition, but nothing like this. Rumor has it that the organizers behind the demonstrations are also planning a general strike next month.  One has to question whether or not organizers will be able to take the energy from these marches into a strike and beyond, and avoid the ineffectiveness of similar actions before the invasion in Iraq. Half-million marches assure that protesters' voices will be heard on the street.  Only a sustained effort will translate those voices into actual legislation.

We can expect changes in the halls of Congress, U.S. neighborhoods, villages throughout Latin American, and even with the next presidential seat. But the greatest change will be in the responsibility of the next generation of leaders: to unify both Latino and non-Latino communities alike. Within forty years, the ethnic makeup of the United States will be substantially different than it is now.  Latinos will be the majority, and this will demand a shift in how we all relate, think and act as a global community.

The "American Dream" might become a "Pan-American Dream".