Edited 4-3-06:

So here you go finally: photos from the (allegedly? million plus!? person) Immigration Reform protest this past Saturday. Wish I had more to say on the subject other than it was amazing seeing the sea of people - solid (peaceful) people from Staples Center to City Hall and back again. I’m ashamed to admit but must that I likely wouldn’t have gone had it not been an assignment from a friend back East. (Thanks, my man - that was a good call!) Met up with friend, Risa, who is filming a (semi?)documentary on the life of the “rent-a-worker” Mexicans who hang out at Home Depot hoping for the odd job. (I don’t think this happens anywhere else. Where you can literally go to Home Depot and pick up a Mexican to do manual labor for the day? Need your bathroom repaired? Get the hardware and the labor, all in the same place!) I managed to make it through nearly the whole day without going on my transportation / “L.A. Hates People” rant but I guess that’s because I’d be yelling at the exact populace who already knows and suffers from the lack of concern for public welfare. I wonder what the people of Bel Air and Beverly Hills really think they would do if they didn’t have an immigrant population to support their expected quality of life. Some terrific signs and t-shirts. I was surprised by the lack of Asian contingency though. As I was watching the police in full garb including bullet proof face masks, someone in the parading crowd walked by and spat at me, “F-’g white girl. What the f* are you doing here? Smiling and shit.” It bothered me (a lot or it wouldn’t have made it to this page.) Made me think of the quote:

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.

Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

by which I do not mean to compare our the Bill’s intention with the “Progroms” but merely to illustrate that sometimes we have to be involved on behalf of others with issues that do not effect us directly or we will not have support on those that do. Oh well.

Click on the photo for a slide show (or go to the gallery for videos as well.)

Viva la Revolucion!

I’ll amend, append and addend later when I have some free time but just quickly wanted to say - attended the protest for Immigration Reform this weekend. Amazing. Throngs of people peacefully expressing unity is always exhilerating. And exhausting.

Went to “V for Vendetta” last night (yay for political weekends); a bit divided on the whole. Disliked tremendously the “thrilling action sequences,” the hold up (oooh, so wrong) and the final visual of the enraged masses. Must find Alan Moore’s review of the film.

Sagittarius Horoscope for week of March 23, 2006

“Neoteny” is a biological term that means the retention of juvenile characteristics into adulthood. For instance, certain small dogs with big eyes and shortened muzzles have a resemblance to puppies even after they’re full-grown. Most of us humans have personality characteristics that are for all intents and purposes neotenous. They’re throwbacks that may make us appear cute and cuddly, but that on the other hand keep us in a state of arrested development. It’s prime time to ask yourself if you have qualities like that, Sagittarius. If so, do you really want to keep cultivating them?

It’s true! I was talking about this just last night (sort of) - how with all my pending options for life paths my most important change needed is simple: “clean your room.” Hahahaha.

Finally! I’ve been trying for awhile to find a way to post this guy and don’t you think he just goes so perfectly with the item Stephanie sent me (since she’s the original author of the poem albeit first couplet inverted) which I’ve attached below. It’s the sex toys are a bigger threat than guns that really hits the nail on the head for me. Thank GOD this country has it’s priorities straight, that’s what I’ve got to say.

Mississippi outlaws sex toys?

There is a landmark legal battle of constitutional proportions being
fought down in Mississippi. It involves fundamental rights protected
by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, not to mention the rights of
certain small business owners to satisfy their customers. This week,
another court refused to recognize Mississippians’ right to find
companionship for 29.99 and so a law outlawing the sale of sex toys
will stand. Read the rest of this entry »