Yes, demonstrating is everyone’s right. But it is also the school’s right and responsibility to count it as an unexcused absence. Yes, voicing your opinion is American. Stopping traffic, throwing rocks at cars and generally intimidating people who disagree with you is not. I live in San Diego where several school districts, including Oceanside and Vista, have closed down for one or more days, fearing violent confrontations between students. And flying the Mexican flag doesn’t exactly signal a desire to become American citizens.
Who is behind these nation-wide, well-coordinated protests? It is hard to believe that French youth are impassioned about not being fired from jobs they don’t have. And indeed, the main organizers of the French protests have been the public employee unions, which account for one-quarter of the labor force in France. The French protests were held in conjunction with nation-wide strikes of public employees, shutting down public services such as transportation, schools, mail delivery and broadcasting. The ability to make people miserable is the source of the union’s power.
The students in America also had a bit of coaching. While Latino DJ’s and Spanish language media have taken some of the credit for promoting the protests, radical Leftist groups also played a key coordinating role. In Los Angeles, the Service Employees International Union, described by the LA Times as a union that represents janitors, helpfully provided security services for the rally. The group, which is better described as a far-left anti-war group, coordinated over 100 buses that dropped off marchers in LA from across the Southwest.
In San Diego, the American Friends Service Committee, which long ago gave up its Quaker Oats for anti-American activism, reportedly were on hand during the marches.
Solving complex political issues through street demonstrations is a recipe for bad public policy. France is a banana republic with bad weather. As Hoover Institution scholar Dennis Bark said about the French demonstrators, "There is going to be no debate about whether the law makes sense. The debate is going to be about: how do we get these kids off the street?"
This is my fear about immigration: the continual importation of people who will be clients of the welfare state and the Democratic party. If all we were dealing with were economics and jobs, we could find grounds for compromise. But under the tutelage of the Left, Hispanics are becoming "assimilated" to the identity politics, and entitlement mentality that is so beloved by the Democratic Party and so obnoxious to taxpayers.
I go to a church that is filled with Mexicans. I love them. It is a privilege to worship with them. They are good, devout, family-oriented people. But after a few years of associating with the party of perjury, paganism and perversion, they won’t be.