I Haven't Finished Yet-The Olympics

While I was composing my previous blog, I was watching the progress of the Olympic Flame through San Francisco. It reminded me of the immigrant march on Washington on 4/11/06. I wrote an article about it, probably even before I started my blog, which I am reprinting below:

I watched or listened to C-Span almost all day yesterday, and I was very moved by the immigrant march in Washington, very much as I felt about the march led by Martin Luther King. It was thrilling to see underdogs in life asserting themselves as human beings.

On the other hand, out of the many calls that came in to C-Span from the public only a paltry few were positive. Most were absolutely vitriolic. Remember “I’m a uniter, not a divider”? He has united party against party, nation against nation, religion against religion, and now nationality against nationality. Through his administration’s use of propaganda since 9/11, we are suspicious of anyone who even looks Near Eastern. And we have now added suspecting anyone who looks Mexican to the list of the “terrorists.” If they are not terrorists, they at least have to be criminals and/or gang members.

It is not hard to see where this is going. (It is now Wednesday April l2.) Immigrants, both legal and illegal, are planning to stage a work walkout on May lst. There will undoubtedly be instances of individual and mob violence. It could have a serious effect on the economy, many people will lose their jobs, and worst of all, there will be a very long period of ill feeling between whites and Mexicans, no matter that many of them are loyal American citizens.

4/9/08

(By coincidence, I see that the immigrant march and the run of the Olympic Flame through San Francisco both fell on the same month and almost the same day two years apart.)

Since this country, especially under Bush, has not done well in the area of international, racial, and political, unity, it is not suprising that the result of the current uproar may be similar to that of Mexico. The last I heard was that Bush had decided to to show the world what a courageous leader he is by attending both the opening ceremonies and the Olympic Games (armed with nothing more than a huge number of armed personal guards, both uniformed and not.) On the other hand, he may be forced by his advisors or by second thoughts to abandon his original plans. Haven’t heard a definitive answer on TV yet. What a great Photo Op his appearance in China would be! I wonder if he thought of that.



In any event, there are many Chinese, at least in San Francisco, who are thrilled at the thought of the Games in China, as well as many US citizens of all races, including Chinese who do not approve of the human rights abuses of China. The result was a near-riot along the route of the Flame, which was only averted by very careful planning on the part of San Francisco police and authorities.

I wonder what will be the future relationship between Chinese citizens and those of other races here, especially on the West Coast. So many Americans have been whipped up, especially by men like Lou Dobbs, into hating the Others, it seems very possible that such racial poison can also easily spread from the West Coast across the nation through the efforts of those who are quick to react to the call of racism.

ARW
4/9/08