Went to an Immigrant Rights Rally Yesterday

Yesterday afternoon was the second time in my life I attended a street march protest. I've always been afraid of them because of my ever-present wheelchair, due to their volatile nature. Mass protests could end up being dangerous, but yesterday, with my best friend there as support (and by his heeding too), we went. And on the "balmy" 30+ degree Minnesota winter day, it was the perfect day to get out and march for something you cared about. And as you know from recent posts, the cabin fever one gets when living in a cold state such as mine, has really been hitting me hard.

So there we were, about to become a part of the immigrants march. Full from a Mexican lunch from the nearby Midtown Market (I hate Ahi Tuna tacos), we saw it coming our way. As we stood on the corner of the street, we saw the protest past right by us on the main thoroughfare, followed by a cop car. We were a bit late in getting there, so the march was already underway. There was some older white guy on the street corner holding a coffee, who barked at us, motioning to the passing protest, "Hey do you know what's going on? What kind of parade is that??" My friend and I just smiled at each other, ignored the guy, and quickly crossed the street (with me barreling through a melted, sloshy pile of snow in the curbcut).

Marching in the protest was quite interesting. At the front of the group was a Mexican guy shouting chants over a megaphone, with a white woman beside him translating everything he said into English. The crowd was an even mix of Mexican and White (no Somalis were present though, as most of them are legal and therefore don't have the deporting problem the Mexicans do). I felt like I was in Argentina in the '70s, marching against Pinochet. It was riveting. We marched/rolled about 7 blocks, and then we had to stop. The cops wouldn't let us go any further. So the guy on the megaphone had all of us crouch down on the street. Since I can't crouch, I just bent over in my chair, trying to lower my body to  everyone else's level. And then, on the count of three, he had all of us jump up into the air and shout, "Derechos para immigrantes!!'

I have to say, after weeks and weeks of doing nothing other than eating, sleeping, watching movies, writing, and playing around online, partaking in this march was just the thing I needed to get my serotonin flowing again;.