Studying social activism has made it all the more apparent that the key component to any social movement is democracy. Today is May Day and rallies, marches and protests are on-going to raise public awareness to issues that involve worker's rights and other issues like immigration.
When I was growing up the school/church area celebrated May Day with the crowning with flowers of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Nothing was ever mentioned about worker's rights or even "Law Day" as it became known as in 1958 to draw attention away from the "communist plot to overthrow the government by the labor unions and workers" that post-WWII and Cold War fears propagated.
So here we are today with Pershing Square the site for an evening rally after a day-long march by workers and Occupy protesters.
My husband re-routed his commute to downtown LA today and will tonight because of the street closures in that area around Pershing Square. He gets to see democracy in practice while there today. . . lucky him.
Democracy is something we take for granted. These workers and others, like many of us, are seeing our rights trampled on and wonder if as a democratic nation we, the people, are losing our voice.
I hope the media gets the story of what is going on in LA today out there. We may not agree with the protests or protesters but THANKFULLY they have a right to assemble and a right to free speech because we still live in a democracy!!
This is so true I completely agree with you on this. We are very privileged to live in a nation that is a democracy when there are so many nations out there that don't. The right to assemble and express ourselves with free speech is something that we should never take for granted.
ReplyDeleteI agree too. It is an honor to be a part of a country that has some form of democracy; a form of free expression for the individual. I think we often take it for granted though, because we tend to forget about the countries that don't have the same liberties as we do.
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