Yesterday I stayed home in solidarity. All day. Didn't shop, didn't go to school, didn't do any work. Sat on the front porch listening to the silence: no lawn mowers, no wood chippers, very few cars speeding down the raceway our street usually is on a normal day. I couldn't believe how quiet it was. Even the noise we can usually hear from the elementary and middle schools just a block or two away was eerily muted. I felt good that, even here in the heart of redstateland, at least some people were taking a stand for their beliefs.
Unfortunately, that feeling lasted only as along as it took for me to bring in the paper this morning and take off the rubber band. On the front page was a photo taken yesterday of a sign on the front of a locally owned restaurant:
ATTENTION [OUR TOWN] CITIZENS
MAY 1, 2006 WE WILL BE OPEN AND UNAFFECTED
BY THE IMMIGRANT LABOR WALK OUT
WE ARE AMERICAN OWNED AND STAFFED
BY A PROUD AMERICAN WORKFORCE
Wanna take a guess as to what type of restaurant this is? Well, they bill themselves as being the home of "World Famous" - wait for it - "Mexican Food." And their name is the term for the very activity that some people want to build a giant wall to stop.
Oh, the irony, the hypocrisy. You can't make up shit like this.