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A New Civil Rights Movement?
Illegal immigration is not the same thing…
[J. F. Kelly, Jr.] 4/5/06

I’ve never been much of a fan of marches and demonstrations. They tend to be noisy, messy and in your face. They divert police from more important duties and cost taxpayers for extra security and for cleanup. They block traffic and inconvenience people because the marchers want you to pay attention to them whether you want to or not. That’s the whole idea, of course. But you have to give credit where credit is due. They sometimes work. Some are saying that the massive demonstrations in major American cities against proposed legislation to curb illegal immigration have ignited a new civil rights movement.

Using web site messages, pro- illegal immigration activists have enlisted droves of school children in the campaign to scuttle or emasculate whatever legislation, if any, the Senate and House can eventually agree on to deal with a problem that almost every American citizen agrees is spinning totally out of control. In Southern California, student walkouts created chaos and demonstrated who’s really not in charge at some of San Diego County’s schools. Encouraged by some faculty members and even some proud parents, students took to the streets, many of them waving Mexican flags and shouting slogans in Spanish, along with a few obscenities understandable in any language.

Most demonstrations were peaceful, a fact gratuitously praised by the media, educators and parents as though such restraint was above and beyond the call. Some were not, however. Scattered acts of vandalism and violence, along with the fear of more of the same, resulted in school closures in Oceanside and Vista. Apologists for the students, including some teachers and parents, applauded the actions of the youthful demonstrators, commending them for their involvement, their determination, their passion, their whatever. After all, shouldn’t they learn in school to think for themselves and take positions on issues that affect them or their family members? Hey, this was a teachable moment. The academic stuff can wait.

To be sure, learning to think, analyze and take positions should be included in the education process but so should respect for adult authority and the laws of one’s country or host country. And while expressing positions in the classroom may be part of the education process we taxpayers are paying plenty for, walking out of school to act out their emotions on city streets is not. Kids belong in school, learning the basics so that they can compete for jobs in an increasingly technical and competitive economy. They have plenty of time to change the world later, after high school, preferably through the political process, perhaps after they learn how to read, comprehend and compute above a sixth grade level, which is for many of them, sadly, an elusive standard.

The Oceanside school superintendent said that his main concern in closing the schools was student safety. I would have thought that his main concern was the education of the students entrusted to him. If the schools can’t be kept safe, we have a real problem, perhaps requiring a more prominent police presence on campus. Closing the schools is certainly not a durable solution.

Is the demonstrators’ cause really a valid civil rights issue? My dictionaries define “civil” as “of, or having to do with, citizens”. Illegal aliens, of course, are not U.S. citizens, which led some to suggest that perhaps they should be demonstrating somewhere where they are citizens. They could demonstrate in Mexican cities for more jobs, higher pay, better working conditions and other benefits, the lack thereof, drives them to flee their native country and risk their lives sneaking into ours to seek them. And if the demonstrations in U. S. cities are for civil rights, why are the demonstrators waving Mexican flags?

But definitions aside, many are referring to these protests and the ones which will follow as a new civil rights movement in America. The inevitable violence that will accompany some of them when emotions get out of hand and the numbers of arrests start to mount may be excused by some supporters as heroic acts of civil disobedience. But to do so is a disservice to Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. Acts of civil disobedience by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his courageous followers were rightful protests by U.S. citizens who were wrongly denied their rights as citizens by laws that were unjust as were earlier laws permitting slavery.

There is a huge difference between protesting against laws which deprived you of your rights as a citizen and protesting laws designed to enforce border security, provide an equitable way for immigrants to apply to enter this country legally and to protect the rights of our own citizens. ONE

copyright 2006 J. F. Kelly, Jr.

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