ONE HALF MILLION PEOPLE marched in Dallas today

[Horse with no Name]

and thousands more marched in Ft. Worth.
>>>>snip
FORT WORTH – An estimated 10,000 to 30,000 people marched along Main Street through downtown on Sunday to show support for what they called fair and comprehensive immigration reform.

Organizers had said they were concerned about the turnout because most of the media attention had focused on the giant protest in Dallas. But it was clear that word of the smaller Fort Worth event had spread.

The marchers, most of them Latino, were peaceful and for the most part silent as they trekked from the Tarrant County Courthouse to the U.S. federal building.

>>>>snip
Up to a half million people carrying signs, chanting and waving U.S. flags converged on downtown Dallas as part of a massive immigration march on Sunday afternoon. A handful clashed with small groups of counterprotesters, but police said they were pleased with the peacefulness of the demonstration. “It’s been a very good day for the city,” Chief David Kunkle said.

http://www.dallasnews.com/
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/041006dnmetfwprotest.1c310fa0.html

[Beelzebud]

1. If only we could get people this passionate about being anti-war...

[Hardrada]

2. There were huge marches before the war

but Bush called them "appeasement focus groups" or something idiotic like that and ignored them. That doesn't mean they shouldn't come back.

[Horse with no Name]

3. Whatever it takes

to wake up the people.
500,000+ people got out of bed today and marched against something.
Those same people will find it easier next time to do the same thing and others will be inspired to do as their neighbors did.
It's slow, but it is coming.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. I am going to the one here tomorrow

and taking my antiwar signs. Maybe I can recruit some angry people to our protests!

[babylonsister]

23. How about huge masses to show their anger about the

voting problems?
I'm so impressed with the numbers of people that are involved!

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

43. If we had only gotten this kind of honest coverage in the marches

That we held in DC before the war.

I remember being there with at least 250,000 protesters and National Propaganda Radio saying 20,000 to 30,000 marched.

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. WHOA! Now THAT is a protest!

I hope they got someone's attention?

[Horse with no Name]

5. I sure hope so

but isn't it awe-inspiring?

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. It really is.

Those people know what this country has to offer and our citizens seem to take it all for granted.

"Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport"

[OzarkDem]

7. Who is organizing and paying for these?

Someone has to be spending quite a bit to organize these events. Anyone know?

[Horse with no Name]

9. Looks to be a total grassroots movement

And it doesn't cost a penny to get out of bed and hit the streets in protest.

[leftstreet]

39. La Raza, the Catholic church, and Latino Radio

None of which give a shit about the intere$t$ of labor; be it documented or undocumented.

They have "no comment" when asked what will prevent millions more undocumented workers from competing with the current ones for THEIR jobs.

[Iris]

56. The Catholic Church does "give a shit" about labor interests.

I'm not a fan of the Catholic Church, but to suggest that they are anti-labor is absurd.

[zanne]

44. The Pentagon is giving protestors the day off.

Heard it on C-Span this morning. (Washington Journal) I think it's fair to say that certain interests are "encouraging" the demonstrators.

[pacalo]

47. I agree! I'm sorry, but this doesn't smell right.

Where are the cordoned-off "free speech zone" areas? The lines of policemen dressed up in riot gear? Why are these protests getting media attention when news about anti-war/Bush protests in the U.S. can only be found in UK media? When the U.S. does cover anti-war/Bush protests, it's usually just a blurb with disinformation intended to minimize the actual number of participants.

I have to ask, what does this administration gain from allowing such large masses to protest unhindered by restrictions/intimidation? It’s awfully massive & well-organized; is this administration allowing this to occur -- or, perhaps, spear-heading an underground campaign/movement -- to light a fire under its base so that their enraged feedback will provide the political leverage he needs to create an immigration policy that will anger pro-immigrants? Or to produce a startling visual for its base in order to show that dim-son’s back is against the wall & he has no choice but to create a policy that will anger his base?

I’m very skeptical at the freedom to protest given to these masses that anti-war/Bush protesters aren't afforded. Just ask Cindy Sheehan!

[LiberalUprising]

58. Finally

A bit of sanity here or most anywhere about this 'protest'

Thank you

[KyuzoGator]

10. Look at this AP article:

http://snipurl.com/oyiy

It starts with, "Tens of thousands of people banged drums, waved U.S. flags and marched in a protest Sunday...."

And two paragraphs later, "Police estimated the crowd at 350,000 to 500,000."

Isn't that like saying, "hundreds" when in fact there were millions? Millions are technically lots of hundreds, but that's not exactly intellectually honest.

Damn liberal media!

[Horse with no Name]

11. Not sure what you are trying to say here

But it IS possible that tens of thousands banged drums and waved flags--and the rest just walked in the crowd.
Look at the picture and realize that the Dallas Morning News is NOT a liberal rag--on the contrary. You can bet a million bucks that they would downplay it if they could.

[submerged99]

12. the headline says"Thousands rally for immigrant rights"

Instead of Tens of thousands or, more accurately, hundreds of thousands.

[SoCalDem]

13. Looks like a few hundred....(as seen with Fox-vision)

:)

[rainbow4321]

14. K&R .....congrats to the organizers

AND the City of Dallas for a successful,peaceful historical event!!

[electron_blue]

15. impressive!

[never_get_over_it]

16. Too bad 500,000 didn't march on Washington

when the Extreme Court gave the 2000 election to the freak in chief - it still amazes me that we sat silent while that freak stole the election....

[Catherine Vincent]

17. Recommended!

Very impressive!

[blogslut]

18. Yeehaw!

I'll tell you how it "gets organized". Last night, I saw a little home-printed flyer on the bulletin board at my grocery store, here in the Panhandle of Texas. I live in a town of roughly 12,000 people. The flyer announced a march for immigrant rights for today to be held in the big city (200,000!) twenty miles away.

I don't know if there was a march today. Our Sunday paper comes out in the morning and there's no late edition. I get crappy reception for local my channels so I dumped them for satellite TV. I am pretty sure it happened as this was in that city's paper yesterday:

Caprock students walk out
Immigration debate prompts teens to march

By Brenda Bernet
[e-mail]

"About 50 to 75 Caprock High School students walked out of classes Friday afternoon and participated in a march around the school to protest any action in Washington that would send illegal immigrant friends and family members back to Mexico..."

(subscription) link to story - http://amarillo.com/stories/040806/new_4406333.shtml



That's in Amarillo, folks...

edit: grammar police

[Horse with no Name]

21. Awesome!

:thumbsup:

[YouthInAsia]

19. Where were these ppl when we were in washington trying to

get these criminals out of office?

[RagingInMiami]

20. They probably couldn't get the day off

[YouthInAsia]

22. neither could I but I went anyway

[RagingInMiami]

25. That was sarcasm

[YouthInAsia]

31. oh. LOL!

[babylonsister]

24. Different issue; anti-war wasn't a big one.

Last year, Sept. 24, happened when Hurricane Rita razed the coast of TX.
I dread this year.

[EFerrari]

28. Me, too.

:scared:

[tammywammy]

26. I saw the protest today

I was at the Dallas Convention Center (took my dad to the auto show) and as we were leaving, we could see the protest from the windows. It was amazing how many people were there, and I know we only caught a small glimpse of it. There were about 10 other people leaving at the same time as us, and they also all stopped to look at it.

[EFerrari]

27. There is something very special about these people.

They haven't tossed family or community for the latest gadget.

They are still real. And I stand with them.

La gente unida

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

29. Gee! I bet some of these people vote!

[tammywammy]

30. I heard on the news tonight

that they had voter registration going on during the protest too.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

32. Look at the political energy unleashed here. And it arose at a moment's

notice, too.

What is the valuable lesson here for Democrats, should we decide to learn it?

[countryjake]

34. When right-wing legislation declares us felons...

hit the streets?

[RagingInMiami]

37. All these protests originated by various church groups getting together

[Hekate]

40. In Los Angeles it was Spanish language tv & radio; the kids used Internet

Those were the ones Saturday, March 25 and Monday, March 27. The organizing apparently just flew under the radar of the Anglo powers-that-be, but it was in plain sight...

Amazing, just amazing. The whole thing is very, very heartening, and the students, especially, restore my faith in the future.

Hekate

[Maat]

54. I marched in the San Diego one.

We had our 'Si se puede! Vote Democratic! signs. People registered to vote there. I spoke with many there who said that they would be willing to march to prevent the bombing of Iran, for the U.S. to exit Iraq, and for peace in general!

[RB TexLa]

33. I was suprised, I knew it would be over 100K

This had the backing of the church, that is The Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The organizing for this has been going on for about a month with many organizations taking part.

[alittlelark]

35. That photo reminds me of our 2003 anti-war San Fran Marches.

At least this one got some air (and print)-time. Our photos were relegated to page 3.

Anyone want to pick the winning 'divisiveness' issue? The shrub knows.....

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

36. Beautiful! People power against politics as usual.

Viva la Huelga General!

[Skittles]

38. I am impressed

very impressed

[Disturbed]

41. What exactly are the majority of the marchers...

marching about?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

48. Presumably marching against the Sensebrenner (sp?) bill.

[Skittles]

50. I am in Sicily and am just seeing cursory reports

but the sheer numbers would be impressive regardless of what they are pissed about!

[Neil Lisst]

42. I thought the use of US flags was a smart move, too.

Large, peaceful, with US flags.

Impressive.

[Adelante]

46. Absolutely

They were shooting themselves in the feet with that flag business. This is much more intelligent.

[LeftHander]

45. Had the MSM not been shilling for Bush...

Millions more would of been in street to oppose the War.

Corporate Latino media cannot survive if illegal immigrants are forced out of this country.

Thanks Sennsenbrenner you Jackass...mean sprited bill. Time to let immigrants in.

The repukes don;t want that because they KNOW they will lose power if the illegals become voting citizens that is what they are afraid of. They don't care about anything but themselves.

Bastards.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

49. We have 10,000 here in SWFlorida - they pre-empted the soaps

10,000 is a lot for these small towns.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

51. Newscasters: "This is the biggest thing that's ever happened in SW Florida

Boy - are they excited. They pre-empted the nbc and abc programming to show the march live.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

52. They're telling counter protestors to leave &police are escorting marchers

Boy is this making the counter-protesters pissed.

[mom cat]

53. Dallas! Not just for J.R. Ewing anymore!

[snot]

55. I live in Dallas; I understood the protest was org'd by LULAC,

the League of United Latin American Citizens, http://www.lulac.org/ .

I believe most of the protesters were Hispanic. There are a lot of Hispanics in this area.

I was at the biggest anti-war protest before the invasion of Iraq. It was big, for Dallas, but it was under 10,000.

[tammywammy]

57. I read yesterday in the paper

that Dallas is about 42% hispanic now.