Reflections on May Day, 2008 in Olympia
May 3, 2008

The planning for the Olympia May Day and the resulting rally and march were a very worthwhile effort to connect the anti-war movement and GI resistance to the immigrant rights struggle within the context of the celebration of May Day--International Worker's day. I am very appreciative and supportive of the centering the May Day rally and march around the Sanctuary City proposal, possibly the first such proposal in the country that calls for a city to be a sanctuary for both GI's and immigrants. We need to connect issues and movements more as happened on May Day in Olympia. The rally and march was an excellent way to put this proposal for Olympia as a sanctuary in the public consciousness, the organizers of the May Day event deserve a lot of credit for this.

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Here are a few videos and photos from yesterday's May Day Events:

link to photoset

May Day 2008
Rally, Music, and March to the State Capitol
Olympia, WA

MAY 1ST.....Support Workers across the World •Stop the Raids & Deportations •Legalization Now • End the War in Iraq • Support War Resisters •Justice for all

MASS RALLY for IMMIGRANT & WORKER RIGHTS & GI RESISTANCE TO THE WAR IN IRAQ

Celebrate workers across the world united with the Immigrant Rights and Anti-War Movements. Meet us at Sylvester Park in Downtown Olympia to listen to speakers, hip hop music by Sound Asylum , and enjoy some good food in a family friendly environment. Topics will include a history of May Day and a Sanctuary City proposal that would protect the rights of undocumented workers and war resisters in Olympia , Washington .

Thursday May 1^st at 12 p.m.

Gather at Sylvester Park for Rally and Music
Corner of Capitol Way and Legion Way
Downtown Olympia, WA

March to the State Capitol at 2 pm

Drew Hendricks will host a "talk about Detention and Removal Operations, a division of ICE. It is entitled "The Order of Terror.""

According to Drew, it "will cover the overview of how this (order of terror) fits into the broader "war on Terra" and how that war (against us, our liberties, and the Constitution) is, in fact, terrorism."

It's in the SEM II A1107 building at Evergreen, 6PM Wednesday March 5th.

The talk may include a discussion of the Department of Homeland Security project Endgame, a detention and removal contingency.

Olydowntowner got me thinking....  usually he gets me angry so this is probably a good thing! 

Some will focus on what is wrong with the United States, and please don't get me wrong, there are plenty of problems in this country.  But I still think we have a pretty solid foundation to work with...

Consider what you can do in this state for instance.

Free speech is a carefully protected right.  Exercise it at will, just be prepared to accept the consequences of your actions.

Worship as you please.

Vote as you please.

Walk down the street wearing a loaded handgun.  Get hassled?  There are plenty of good people who will come and back you up.

Travel within your own nation without permission.  It is getting tough to get out or get back in, which is getting stupid, but we can address this and change this as a nation if enough people get upset.

I could go on and on and on I'm sure.

So for just a moment, can we please focus on any freedom you have enjoyed and maybe even pushed a little to it's utmost?  You know what I do, and how I enjoy my freedoms and rights.  What do YOU do?  Post pics, push the envelope here...  just don't knock another's rights for just a moment.  We all enjoy the same Constitutions (state and federal) and the same protections therein.  It's a sunny day, let's have a sunny rights thread!  If nothing else, consider how wonderful Olyblog is, that we can freely publish on topics that would get us arrested elsewhere...

Then we can return to our regularly scheduled "What is screwed up and how to fix it conversations" :-) 

The United States government issues Green Cards every year through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, commonly known as the Green Card Lottery. Applicants are selected randomly by a computer generated drawing. If selected, the main applicant, spouse and all unmarried children under 21 years of age will have a chance to apply for permanent resident status in the United States.

The Diversity Visa Lottery 2007 (DV-2007) had 50,000 available visas with over 5.5 million qualified entries received during the 60-day application period. See http://www.usagcls.com/

Over 5.5 million people apply for 50,000 visas. Might that be an indicator that a chance of living in the United States is very attractive to many people of this world. Seems like it to me!