America. What a great country. Sometimes I am absolutely amazed at what goes on and the strength people demonstrate while standing up for what they believe in. Even new entrants to the country learn fast and sometimes have a thing or two to teach us about Democracy and how to fight for it. The Great American Boycott of 2006, or its more popular name “A day without an Immigrant,” is scheduled to take place on May 1, 2006 and is drawing support from immigrant groups across the country. Contrary to popular belief this is not a Mexican or Hispanic thing, it is an Immigrant thing. Whether you come from Africa, Argentina, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, Spain or any other country for that matter, whether it was you, your parents or your grandparents that sacrificed everything they had and came here in search of a better life, whether you feel the pain of immigrants today or not, the Immigrant Solidarity Network is asking you for your support.

The Immigrant Solidarity Network (ISN) is calling on those who support the cause to put on a white t-shirt and stand together and stop business as usual; “No Work, No School, No Sales, and No Buying, and also to have rallies around symbols of economic trade in your areas (stock exchanges, anti-immigrant corporations, etc.) at May 1st to protest the anti-immigrant bill.”

The mission is to create a sea of white, white t-shirts that is, expressing their political demands from coast to coast. What exactly are the demands? “Full amnesty and dignity for the millions of undocumented workers presently in the U.S.” (ISN) Wow. They sure are shooting for the stars. Well, I guess if I have learned anything in life is that you have to shoot for the stars, and if you are lucky, you may just hit the moon.

This boycott has actually gotten so big and received so much support that even the California Senate has endorsed it and has equated its supporters and allies with the “great social movements in American history.” “It's one day ... for immigrants to tell the country peacefully, 'We matter ... (we're) not invisible,'" said Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, the resolution's chief author. She said immigrants make up a third of California's labor force and a quarter of its residents.” http://www.nohr4437.org/ Of course, not everyone in the state Senate agrees, such as Senator Bill Morrow of Oceanside who joined 12 other senators in voting against the endorsement, “"It is a disingenuous effort to put the government of California on record supporting open borders," said Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside.”

Rallies have been planned for Monday all over the state, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Gardena, Cal Poly Pomona, Bell, Santa Ana, Sacramento, San Jose, Oakland, Concord and other cities. (For a complete list of all events, click here. Although school officials are practically begging students to be sure to come to school, students will undoubtedly take this excuse to ditch class. I know I was looking for any excuse to do so when I was in high school.

Although the Senate endorses the boycott the debate seems to continue amongst legislatures and citizens alike. But will their debates matter if this protest/rally/boycott reaches anywhere near the size of the last months March 25th rally that police say included more than 500,000 people protesting the proposed government crackdowns? “I’ve been on the force 38 years and I’ve never seen a rally this big,” said Cmdr. Louis Gray Jr., incident commander for the rally. If this continues, than I am sure they will get the attention they are looking for. The question now is, will this new attention do more good than bad? I know some people might just get scared when they see this kind of mobilization and might over-react with Gestapo-style laws or actions. I really hope we don’t see anything like that.

If you are wondering how 500,000 people look like crammed into a rally, check out the great picture on this MSN article. I would have posted it but they seem like the kind of company to get mad at me for doing so. But don’t worry, I plan to attend Monday’s rallies that starts at 12:00 pm at Olympic and Broadway and goes to City Hall in order to get some pictures and video of my own to share with you. Until then, whether you agree with this protest or not, at least join me in proclaiming: long live true freedom and democracy and those with the courage to fight for it!