Protest! Protest!

Yesterday I went to my first protest. It was not necessarily called a protest. I think it was supposed to be referred to as a "celebration" or a demonstration. It was a labor day march for the civil rights of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. Apparently many Mexicans are neither allowed to work nor leave and they cannot provide for their families. Immigration has falsely arrested thousands and split families apart. The march was put on by a bunch of Evangelical Christians to show that they stood in support and solidarity with the migrant workers. Unfortunately many Christians do a bad job of making outsiders feel welcome. The church is often slow to move on social justice issues like this and do a bad job standing up for the oppressed and the marginal, ironically those whom Jesus helped the most.
I rode my bike to 3rd and Madison in front of City Hall. No one was there. I have never been to a protest before and so i just assumed that if you go to the general direction of where the protest is supposed to be you will hear loud bullhorns and see an ocean of signs. But there was no one around. I wandered around for a few minutes before i saw a guy with a guitar and a girl with a drum unloading stuff from the back of the van. The girl had a hippie skirt and the guy had a beard so i figured these people might be able to help me.

I walked over to them and introduced myself rather awkwardly. By introduce myself i mean that i stood there until they noticed me and introduced themselves to me. It turns out they were the people i was looking for except for one thing: there was only about four of them. They assured me more were coming and while i believed them i also had a small panic attack because i realized that i would not be marching in a mass of people obscured, inconspicuously hidden by dozens of picket signs and tye dye shirts.

Slowly about ten more people trickled in. During this time i wrote words with sidewalk chalk. I wrote things such as "Love your neighbor" and "God is Love." Other people wrote bible verses about hospitality and others drew facts about immigration and U.S. policy. After enough people arrived a guy by the name of Brandon said a few opening words about how the Latino families are our brothers and sisters and how we have a chance to help the least of these. He said a prayer and then we began to march. Two people carried a banner of a lamb holding a flag with a cross on it in its mouth. Im pretty sure it is the same design from that book "Jesus for President." I had just read that book so i was stoked on that. The rest of us held signs and wound our way through downtown Portland until we reached the immigration office or "Ice" as it is known. I already knew from an name like "ice" that this place must be cold hearted. I bet they abuse their pets and make their children clean the toilet with toothbrushes just because. They probably also hate things involving the words "party," "ice cream," and "fun." They probably hate Snickers bars.

When we got to the Ice office we set up a prayer vigil and read some bible verses and sang some songs. A lady from the news filmed us and she was shocked to hear that us "evangelicals" cared about these people.

The whole time i was doing this i was trying to figure out whether or not i really believed in the cause or just wanted to go to a protest so i would be trendy and cool and progressive. I also thought about how it would make a good story to tell to girls. "What are you doing tonight?" they would ask. "Oh you know, nothing much. Just going to a protest."
Then they would tell me how passionate i am about my beliefs and how they would want to go out with someone like that.

I didnt really come to a conclusion about whether or not what i was doing was legit or not. I think it was. I mean i really do care about the poor and the marginalized. I really do believe in action over apathy and doing something to ignite.

So I guess it was a good experience. I believe that God was with us and that he heard us. I met some really cool people and i guess did my best to bring love and make the world a better place.