Electricity

I’ve been to a lot of protests, most of them against the illegal occupation of Iraq. I wont discount the sense of a common bond, but I never felt like part of the majority. A myriad of non-related issues ended up sneaking into the demonstrations: pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-native American, free Mumia, save the West Memphis 3... the list goes on.

The result: a muddled message carried out by thousands of (mainly) white people and off-topic speeches by the very people who bring down the movement with their so-called radicalism. We tend to lose our focus on the left because we care too much. It’s our badge of honor, but also our downfall when it comes to speaking with one, collective voice. Who knew the time would come for a Hispanic civil rights movement? The half-dozen counter-protesters in D.C. didn’t put any kind of dent in the spirit of the demonstration. Watching yesterday’s gatherings in Phoenix and Washington, D.C. I was overcome with emotion seeing the hundreds of thousands of faces that looked like mine, like my family, like the people I grew up with. The overhead shots displayed a sea of mostly Latinos, most wearing white, the dust hovering above them as a result of the bustle from the march. Instead of the “repellant spectacle” described by Brit Hume of FOX News, I saw a gritty, passionate mass of people speaking as one. I really want to know more about the high school kid that sounded like a young Barack Obama. Seriously…who was that guy? Is it too early for me to propose? Today we vote, tomorrow we march is right. Politicians on all sides of the aisle have to realize that Latinos are a voting bloc to be reckoned with on Election Day. On a completely unrelated note, Edinburg's very own self-proclaimed "force to be reckoned with" anonymous blogger chose to publish the names, home addresses, dates of birth and driver's license numbers of 8 people in the comment portion of his/her blog. I'm assuming s/he was trying to make a political point, but, as I replied:

...there's a case to be made of open government versus the privacy of personal information. Access to government records promotes enhanced accountability, but it should be balanced against the government's duty to prevent unprovoked invasions of privacy where such personal information is involved.

I guess stirring up minor controversy in order to promote more traffic to your blog trumps common sense. On another thread, s/he told me to "blog [her] into [my] leftist rhetoric" if I found fault with her posts.

Um...ok.