![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/\nmarch.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Yesterday, April 9th, was a spectacular spring day
\n in Boston, perfect for baseball, bird watching (in the British
\n sense) or a protest march. Mired between semesters, at the tattered tail
\n end of a medical leave and looking for a little action, in our wimpy,
\n middle-aged way, we decided to attend the Boston iteration of the nation
\n march for immigration rights.<\/p>\n
For the record, your correspondents position on the
\n question is that we are ALL immigrants and guest workers on Planet Earth,
\n that in a perfect world everybody would be able to live wherever they
\n want, and that anything we can do to get closer to that ideal is a good
\n thing. We’ve always been a nation of grubby immigrants clawing our way
\n towards the American Dream, and if you don’t like it, move to Canada
\n or Switzerland. This is America, and its open to all. Love it or leave
\n it, baby.<\/p>\n
But as a Movement, we weren’t expecting much from the
\n Boston illegal immigrant march. Half a million strong they came out in
\n Los Angeles, a sea of people, a generational echo of the march to Yazgur’s Farm. Even
\n more in Texas. However, we expected that the lower level of ethnic homogeneity
\n and organization in the immigrant population of Boston and the higher level of paranoia
\n among that population, most of whom are trying very hard to
\n keep a low profile and not draw attention to their precarious presence
\n here, would severely limit turnout.<\/p>\n
We were not disappointed. We snagged a primo meter just
\n off Copley Square, and made sure the damn thing was full (having gotten
\n hit while at a doctor’s appointment in Cambridge a few hours earlier).
\n The plan was to set out backwards down the march route towards the Boston
\n Common, where the rally was supposed to form up. Still, we were a bit
\n early, so we had a smoke and sat in the White Whale for half an hour or so,
\n reading the New York Times.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/\ncopcam.jpg\")
When
\n we reached the staging area after a delightful stroll across the Public
\n Garden and the Common, Boston’s brief spring
\n manifest in every gleaming bud and alabaster white body part exposed
\n to the sun anew after six months of swathing in wool, goose down and assorted
\n miracle fabrics, we were not surprised to find it almost empty. There
\n were 60 or 70 expectant individuals milling around before a makeshift
\n stage and PA system, most wearing the distinctive white T-shirts and orange
\n armbands of the march organizers foot soldiers. We could see a few signs, a tiny band
\n of black-clad Anarchists looking lost, and a shaky table holding the
\n latest gripping literature from the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party.<\/p>\n
Not much to shoot or report on, we thought. But it was
\n a beautiful day to spend in the part, march or no march, and we had just
\n pumped 8 quarters into our meter, so we decided to stick around and
\n see what developed. In the meantime, completely ignoring the repeated
\n advice of Norma Yvonne, our primary care doctor and our nutritionist, not to mention
\n dear old Mom, we scurried into the Boston Common McDonalds for a quick #1 Value meal. Since it
\n was our first solid sustenance of the day, we scorfed it
\n down like a hungry hound and hurried back to the scene.<\/p>\n
What a difference a few minutes can make! There was
\n now a colorful, motley crew of hundreds, skipping and jumping around,
\n wrapped
\n in flags, hoisting signs, waving banners and shouting stuff in Spanish
\n and English.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/\ndude.jpg\")
And the crowd was steadily growing. For
\n half an hour we watched the grassy mall in front of the Common Rotunda
\n fill up as subway after subway disgorged marchers
\n a hundred meters upslope at the Park Street T station. Down the path
\n they came, Latins from dozens of countries, each group with their flags,
\n T-shirts, signs and speech identifying their proud point of origin – Irish in boisterous
\n voice with big Irish flags and oozing attitude; quiet, smiling Asians,
\n looking happy but slightly anxious, like people invited to a party who
\n were uncertain of what to wear, and had no one to ask; a mixed bag of
\n lefty Anglo street people, progressives and pathologic marchers; and
\n a smattering of Russians, French, Germans and Nordic types, who may have
\n been illegal
\n immigrants but were more probably Eurotrash tourists just watching the
\n show.<\/p>\n
Once the music stopped and the speeches started we got
\n bored and decided to head back to the White Whale, to feed our meter
\n and our head, and wait for the main rally at the end of the march, which was scheduled to terminate right
\n in Copley Square. By the time we left the Common, the crowd had swollen
\n to several thousand and was becoming, if not feisty, at least raucous.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/\nflagwrap.jpg\")
Meanwhile, despite our best efforts, our head was 300 years in the past and an ocean away. We
\n have been completely sucked into our latest novel, the middle volume
\n in Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, a bizarre but engrossing historical
\n fantasy involving actual characters like Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin,
\n Louis Quatorze as well as an astounding assortment of invented scoundrels,
\n vagabonds, alchemists, soldiers and whores and dealing with themes like
\n the origins of calculus, cryptography, international banking, and the
\n European manias which led to two world wars in the last century. It
\n is called, appropriately enough, "The Confusion" and we decided to sit in the car and read
\n a chapter while we waited for the march to catch up to us.<\/p>\n
It was almost six, but Coply Square was still strongly illuminated thanks to
\n DST, with long shadows of roofs and church spires slanting across the lawns and walkways, when we shook ourself back to the 21st century and got out of the car to see what was going on. The
\n organizers had set up another temporary stage on one side of the Square,
\n and a lively pop-reggae beat blasted from a powerful PA. As we crossed
\n Boyleston St., right in front of the main Boston Public Library, we fell
\n in with a chattering gaggle of female 30-something suburban shoppers,
\n simultaneously weighed down by designer store shopping bags and buoyed
\n up by the intoxicating scent of spring in the air.<\/p>\n
"Look," said one, "There’s a concert in the Square!
\n Must be the Noontime Concert Series. What day is it?"<\/p>\n
"No," answered another, "The free concerts in the Square
\n are on Wednesday. Today is Monday. Must be some special celebration."<\/p>\n
Discussion ensued. Some of the ladies wanted to check it out, others
\n said, why bother? We felt obliged to lend a hand.<\/p>\n
"Ladies," we interjected, "Less than a half mile from
\n here there are 30 thousand enraged, criminal, illegal immigrants. That
\n godless jungle music is for them, and they are headed for RIGHT WHERE
\n YOU ARE STANDING!" <\/p>\n
They looked at each other, trying to reach a consensus
\n as to whether we were dangerous or ridiculous, but, seemingly unable
\n to reach a verdict, hurried off. We crossed the street, alone. In front
\n of the library, an overweight, high-milage hold-out from the 60’s in a
\n tie-dyed peasant blouse and strand upon strand of worry beads draped over her ample breast looked us in the eye and asked, "Have you found
\n Jesus?"<\/p>\n
"Didn’t know he was lost," we sneered as we hurried
\n by. <\/p>\n
10 meters further down the sidewalk, there was another
\n one! This one was a guy, in a long brown sackcloth robe with a rope belt
\n (he had
\n that Boston Cardinal thing going) but looking more like Friar Tuck. He
\n held up a sign with a single word emblazoned on it in red paint, a word
\n he also intoned every 15 or 20 seconds or so- "Repent."<\/p>\n
"We haven’t even "pented" the first time yet," we informed
\n him, as we cut across the street, which was clear, as traffic had already
\n been cut off by the motorcycle cops standing on all the corners. <\/p>\n
What is it about a warm spring day and a protest march, we wondered, that brings our every Jesus Freak, acid queen, religious extremist and political whacko in the state? <\/p>\n
On the
\n inner perimeter of the streets around the Square, the satellite trucks
\n of the major networks and more ambitious local stations had set up. So
\n far, reporters and tourists clearly outnumbered immigrants.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/\nsunners.jpg\")
Suddenly,
\n there was a rush of people and cameras to one side of the Square. The
\n march was coming down St. James Avenue, filling the street from curb
\n to curb, waving flags, flying banners, and
\n stretching back the entire four blocks to the Public Garden, at least.They
\n were making a lot of noise.<\/p>\n
We got some good shots and movies as the immigrant wave
\n flooded into the Square, until we noticed that our camera was beeping
\n because its memory chip was full. We had no idea how long that had been
\n the case. There was some semi-organized activity taking shape on the
\n small stage in the Square.<\/p>\n
All things considered, we decided to disappear before
\n more politicians and wannabes started speechifying again. The White
\n Whale was poised for the get-away. Five minutes later we were back over
\n the river, heading to Watertown.<\/p>\n
In retrospect, a pleasant protest, if somewhat lacking
\n in weight of numbers or seriousness. As much as it pains us to admit
\n it, the French may have us beat in the current season of springtime social
\n protest.<\/p>\n
article from the Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday, April 9th, was a spectacular spring day in Boston, perfect for baseball, bird watching (in the British sense) or a protest march. Mired between semesters, at the tattered tail end of a medical leave and looking for a little … Continue reading