May Day! May Day!

mayday, originally uploaded by A.p.K.

It has been difficult lately to find much to love about my country. The shine of an energized election has been quickly dulled by in-fighting and a near-complete avoidance of real issues. The cost of fuel has risen so far so quickly that now B.’s wee little Ford Escort costs over $50 to fill up. The cost of food is climbing too, and while my beloved farmer’s market still carries a tab of $1 per leafy bunch of seasonal produce, I am starting to look at my cupboards wondering if I really should be stockpiling.

Oh, and there have been a smattering of earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, and here in California we had one whole day of rain in the entire month of April - water-rationing has already begun in a few communities, and the dry grassy hillsides have already gone to seed. It seems that fire season and earthquake weather might do more than overlap this year. And please, don’t even mention the closure of salmon season, my poor heart can’t take it.

So it is gratifying to see the marches taking place today. Something is right with the world when people are able to take to the streets and be heard, particularly through the din of the latest pop-princess/sports scandal “news”. Today is a national day of protest that I hope will be peaceful and poignant. From SFGate.com:

In the San Francisco Bay Area and across the country, May Day is expected to be a day of protests - for an end to the war in Iraq, against education budget cuts and, above all, in favor of legalization for undocumented immigrants.

Dockworkers with the International Longshoremen and Warehouseman’s Union are walking off the job today at ports up and down the West Coast calling for an end to the war.

Students at San Francisco State University, UC Berkeley and other college campuses planned walk outs and teach ins on the state’s proposed cuts to education spending.

And in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and other cities in California and across the country, immigrant rights advocates are taking to the streets.

…

Immigrant advocates meanwhile said today’s marches could help Americans understand the human impact of strict enforcement and an immigration system that provides few legal avenues for low-skilled workers to take jobs in the United States.

“In the 2006 mobilizations, you saw the people whose lives were being affected,” said Arnoldo Garcia, of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, also in Oakland. “They have a human face, they have families. They’re here, they’re part of the community. In California, one in four people, including Gov. Schwarzenegger, is an immigrant. Anything you do to that one fourth, it’s going to affect the other three fourths.”