United Church of Christ Marches for Just Immigration Reform in Downtown Long Beach
3 JulOrganized by the United Church of Christ and as part of its General Synod 2013, about 200 people marched on the sidewalk in downtown Long Beach, first to the office of Immigration Customs and Enforcement, then to City Hall, and finally to the office of Congressman Alan Lowenthal, on Monday, July 1, in support of just and comprehensive immigration reform.
While the UCC organized the march, it was endorsed by the Long Beach Immigrants Rights Coalition, FilipinoMigrantsCenter, and other local immigration rights groups.
While marching, one chant was “We are people. We are not illegal.” Another chant was “Stop deportations now.” A third chant was “The people united will never be defeated.” A fourth chant was “Education, not deportations.” Also to the tune “Down by the Riverside,” the marchers, while walking, sang, “We’re all God’s children. We ain’t going to build that border fence.”
Some marchers wore buttons, which said, “Jesus was a low-wage worker.”
One marcher was Kirk Laubstein, 32. Laubstein, who is a third-year student at the Chicago Theological Seminary, said, “It says in the Bible God welcomes everyone … that is what we should do in America.”
Another marcher, Beverly Travers, 65, who is from Arizona, said she was marching because she opposes deportation of immigrants.
A third marcher was Rev. Dale Parson. Parson said that he was “marching in solidarity with those whose daily lives are impacted by the reality of deportation and discrimination. . . .We’re marching for the rights of all immigrants, their families, for justice, for equality.”
At each of the three stops a religious ritual was performed; at the immigration office, holy water was sprinkled; at City Hall, feet were washed; and at congressional office, bread was broken.
At the office of Congressman Alan Lowenthal, his field representative, Irantzu Pujadas thanked the marchers for their hard work and then read from Congressman’s statement of the previous week, which in part, said, “I look forward to supporting the comprehensive immigration reform bill in the House (of Representatives) that not only secure our borders, but protects our workers, reunites families, and offers an earned path to citizenship.”
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2 July 2013
353 words
Organized by the United Church of Christ and as part of its General Synod 2013, about 200 people marched on the sidewalk in downtown Long Beach, first to the office of Immigration Customs and Enforcement, then to City Hall, and finally to the office of Congressman Alan Lowenthal, on Monday, July 1, in support of just and comprehensive immigration reform.
While the UCC organized the march, it was endorsed by the Long Beach Immigrants Rights Coalition, FilipinoMigrantsCenter, and other local immigration rights groups.
While marching, one chant was “We are people. We are not illegal.” Another chant was “Stop deportations now.” A third chant was “The people united will never be defeated.” A fourth chant was “Education, not deportations.” Also to the tune “Down by the Riverside,” the marchers, while walking, sang, “We’re all God’s children. We ain’t going to build that border fence.”
Some marchers wore buttons, which said, “Jesus was a low-wage worker.”
One marcher was Kirk Laubstein, 32. Laubstein, who is a third-year student at the Chicago Theological Seminary, said, “It says in the Bible God welcomes everyone … that is what we should do in America.”
Another marcher, Beverly Travers, 65, who is from Arizona, said she was marching because she opposes deportation of immigrants.
A third marcher was Rev. Dale Parson. Parson said that he was “marching in solidarity with those whose daily lives are impacted by the reality of deportation and discrimination. . . .We’re marching for the rights of all immigrants, their families, for justice, for equality.”
At each of the three stops a religious ritual was performed; at the immigration office, holy water was sprinkled; at City Hall, feet were washed; and at congressional office, bread was broken.
At the office of Congressman Alan Lowenthal, his field representative, Irantzu Pujadas thanked the marchers for their hard work and then read from Congressman’s statement of the previous week, which in part, said, “I look forward to supporting the comprehensive immigration reform bill in the House (of Representatives) that not only secure our borders, but protects our workers, reunites families, and offers an earned path to citizenship.”
Wife Poem
19 MayI promised to present besides news writing other forms of writing. One of my favorite phrases, which I repeat often enough, is a two new line poem I wrote:
I know my fate
my wife is always late.
I consider myself a lucky man. I have a wife, who I love dearly and who loves me. However, when it comes to time, my wife and I are polar opposites. I am aware of the time, while my wife is oblivious to it. Time passes without her being aware of it. If I have an appointment, I try to be on time. If she has an appointment, she will invariably be rushing to be somewhere. We’re just different. I celebrate the difference.
Random Thoughts on My Writing
5 May05 May 2013
Since late January of this year I’ve been writing for the LBReport.com except for two exceptions, my last story on the trades protest and the “People’s State of the City,” which was published by the Long Beach Post.
My first, and only, personal essay was pbulished in March 2012 by Palacio Long Beach.
Correction to the PCC Trades Story
5 May5 May 2013
In my last story, I failed to include the “when” in the middle of the nutgraf. It was Wednesday, May 1.
Long Beach City College Trades Protest
2 May02 May 2013
About 100 protesters, mostly from the trades at the Long Beach City College Pacific Coast Campus with some community supporters from Occupy Long Beach, marched from the PCC to City Hall downtown, about two and half miles.
One student marching was Valerie Boyd, 52, who is taking three welding classes this semester. Boyd went back to school in 2011 to learn a new trade after being laid off in 2009. Boyd said, “I don’t like the idea that they are closing down the trades because when the younger generation get out of high school, they’ll have no trade to go into.”
Another marcher, Panek Peov, 31, who is in the auto body program and has one more class to complete, said he was there to support his fellow students.
A third marcher, who has owned a small business in historic window preservation for five years, said she learned her trade at Fullerton College in the construction sciences, which had been previously cut.
One student carried a sign, with an enormous fist and the phrase, “Students Unite.” One chant was “Students united will never be divided.” Two other chants were “Save the trades” and “Recall the Board.”
One flyer being distributed said, “We destroyed LBCC and ruined students’ lives, next target city of Long Beach” and had images of LBCC Trustees Doug Otto and Roberto Uranga.
Another flyer, which claimed to be from “Students United to Reclaim Education,” in part said, “The current Board of Trustees … has betrayed the people’s trust. Instead of being ‘watchdogs,’ the board has become a ‘rubber stamp’ allowing the current administration to waste huge sums of taxpayer’s money …”
People’s State of the City–Long Beach, California
15 Apr12 April 2013
About 320 people from the community attended the second annual “People’s State of the City,” organized by the civic engagement committee of the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community, on Thursday, March 11 at the Grace United Methodist Church, where affordable housing, clean environment, good jobs, healthy and safe neighborhoods, immigrant rights and quality education were discussed.
Tonia Reyes Uranga, Christopher Covington and Liam Cheun from Khmer Girls in Action presented the state of Long Beach. Uranga, who is the executive director of the Miguel Contreras Foundation and a former councilwoman, described some of the city’s issues. She said her presentation was not to criticize, but to inform, educate, inspire and motivate people to organize and to act. Long Beach residents in poverty are 25 percent of the population. One out of two children lives in poverty. Uranga said, “The fact is as union membership increases so does family income. Ask the hotel workers union.” She then addressed the other issues of affordable housing, higher mortality rates in the poorer areas, environmental pollution, especially on the Westside, school truancy, teen pregnancy, and immigration.
Cheun focused her remarks on the lower voting rates among the poorer area in the city, but she pointed out the rates increased when Proposition N (Living Wage Ordinance) was on the ballot because of the proposition’s relevancy to the voters.
Covington from BHC: LB Youth Committee described the demographics. Long Beach is the seventh largest city in California with a population of almost 500,000. Women are 51 percent of the population. People under 18 are 25 percent. The latest census shows the highest density of African-Americans is downtown and toward the north; whites are about 30 percent of the population and are concentrated in the Third, Fourth and Fifth Districts on the eastside and toward Belmont Shore; Latinos are 41 percent of the population and are significant in all the districts, with higher densities in the western half of the city, which are the First, Fifth, Seventh and Ninth Districts; Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American and Indigenous communities are 13 percent of the population with concentrations in the Fourth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Districts.
Indigenous Steward Aunty Xochitlmilko Portillo, in her welcome, in Tonga, English and Spanish, told a story, illustrating racist bulling, where a 30-year-old woman bus driver yelled, “Go back from where you came from!” at a 5-year-old immigrant, Spanish-speaking-only boy. Portillo, later asked, “What legacy do we want to leave our descendents seven generations from now? What do you want your descendents to say about you? What heritage are you going to leave your descendents?”
The church’s Pastor Nestor Gerente, who characterized himself as a first-generation Filipino immigrant, also welcomed the audience.
Also attending were city council members: Robert Garcia, Patrick O’Donnell, Gerrie Schipske, Al Austin and Steve Neal, and LBCC Board of Trustees: Roberto Uranga and Doug Otto.
Meanwhile during the resource mixer, Professor Julian Del Gaudio, who teaches history at Long Beach City College and who attended the first “People’s State of the City,” which he found enlightening, said, “This is where we need to look to see what needs to be done to improve the quality of life in this city because the perspective is not from the top down, which is the mayor’s ‘State of the City.’ It’s from the bottom up.”
Ofelia Rivera, a community activist with the Long Beach Time Exchange, said that it was an important event to attend because it provided an opportunity for community members to find out about resources and to network with others.
Tina Lopez, a member of Military Families Speak Out, agreed with Rivera that it was an opportunity for community members to network with each other.
Barry Saks 