My letter to Philly Inquirer

SO again, I have written a letter to Ms. Yant of the Philly Inquirer to let her get a residential perspective on what occured at the rally/protest. Here is that letter

Dear Ms. Yant,

As you are probably aware, the Riverside Rally was yesterday. I just wanted to write you again and give a residential point of view.

I went down to the corner of Pavilion and Scott with my mom because she has never seen anything thing like this. Back in her country she never did any type of protesting or rally. This was going to be my first rally/protest.

From the moment I got there I could tell this was going to be my 1960’s Civil Rights. I was just getting the sense of what it felt like to protest. I felt for those that were against the ordinance. I saw a small crowd of them, about 50 people, at about 2pm. They were on one corner and what seemed like the rest of the population of Riverside…most of the white majority of Riverside, were standing on the other three corners. They had their signs and were doing the chants of “USA” “Show us your green card” and even the perplexing “The south shall rise again”. There were sights of Confederate flags and even a group of young kids with their shaved heads and Aryan skin in a black Bronco skidding through the middle of the street and the people of Riverside were cheering them.

Is that what Riverside wants to be known as? They want to be known as people who cheer the white man’s forced dominance over the ethnic people? They want to be known as people who want Slavery back? They want to be known as the “White Power” Riverside? Well after all during spirit week they do paint the motto’s Maroon most Mighty and White will win. Maybe some people take that too literally.

I feel so bad for these immigrants that come here for a better life. Now they need to fear these hate filled people.

There were jeers being thrown at the protesters. Some so cruel you really wonder about humanity. Then you have people that came to the rally just to say they came. Some go there, throw out insults, and see a friend and are laughing and joking. I’m glad to see they know what the issues are and the gravity of the situation.

What made me even more disappointed was that there were teenagers and kids there. These kids are too young to understand what is really going on. They just see their parents and agree with them. Because after all, our parents know best. They are never wrong, even when one screams out, “The south didn’t lose”.

What was so deplorable about the day was there was a smell of beer and pot in the air. People came drunk to the rally. When you have alcohol, heat, and a hot button issue like this, you can only expect something to happen. Now nothing got too out of hand, thanks to the many cops from surrounding towns, but I have a strong feeling if we only had our cops, some type of violence may have occurred. Violence that most likely would have started by those that are for the ordinance.

The people that were marching that did, did what our founding fathers stated in the Constitution. They had a peaceful assembly. They had solidarity. They will continue to protest and fight the way our founding fathers intended us to protest. I just hope that the legal citizens will realize that and respect them for doing it that way. But sadly, our wonderfully educated adults seem to forget that part of our history.

I took pictures of the event but I am getting them developed. I will pass them onto you when I get them back.

Thank you,

Deirdre Lynds

Tags: Immigrants ; Illegal Immigrants ; Racism ; New Jersey