With Congress in recess, the immigration debate is back where it began – our cities, towns and neighborhoods. And, with that debate being as emotionally charged as it is, you take the bad with the good.
Here's the bad: Those juvenile Latino protesters who pushed ethnic pride too far by flying the American flag upside down or underneath the Mexican flag or tried to prevent other Latinos from waving the Stars and Stripes. And, on the other side of the great divide, the equally juvenile border watch group in Tucson who, in a deliberately provocative gesture, set fire to a Mexican flag outside the Mexican consulate.
In both cases, these are cheap theatrics that are of no value to this important national dialogue.
Here's the good: It is an amazing thing to see hundreds of thousands of people turning out for demonstrations in as many as 70 U.S. cities to voice their support for immigrants and for comprehensive reform of the nation's broken immigration system.
It's a historic occurrence and a welcome development – especially since most of the demonstrations were orderly and dignified.
The demonstrations make for an impressive sight. But one thing it doesn't make for is power. Not necessarily. And not automatically.
Much of the media got that wrong. No sooner had the marches ended than scores of headlines were written suggesting that what we were witnessing was the flexing of political muscle by Latinos, now the nation's largest minority.
Hold on there. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Power and political muscle don't come from marching or waving flags or chanting slogans. They come from things that aren't nearly as sexy or as dramatic but that ultimately pack a much greater punch. They are things like participatory democracy and community involvement. It isn't until these activists cross the threshold from street protests into greater civic engagement that they'll experience any real power to direct their own lives and help influence the future of this country.
What we're seeing isn't the end. It's merely the beginning. Demonstrators have a lot of work to do. Those who are here illegally have to take the steps to become legal, and legal residents need to follow the procedures necessary to become U.S. citizens. Meanwhile, those who are already citizens need to register and vote and serve on juries and join the PTA and do a host of other things that connect them to the society in which they live.
Listen in to the protests and you'll hear plenty of talk about rights, especially the rights of immigrants. But, when it comes to living in America, that's only half the story. The rest – and the most important part – deals with responsibility.
It's not what this country gives you that is central to being an American. It's what you give back. The sooner the demonstrators realize and accept that, the better off they'll be.
