The Beginning Of A New Week.

And we're back, after a bit of a vacation. No, it wasn't the dreaded bird flu, but it certainly felt like it.

So what's happening?

The protesting is still going strong, and it's spreading. Also, more than just those with Hispanic backgrounds are marching. Millions of people from all walks of life are joining in.

I wasn't surprised to see this as I frequently go to one of Livejournal's homes for all things pertaining to the Twin Cities, ljtwincities. Someone posted about the march to the Capitol in St. Paul today, asking people to march in support of immigrants' rights.

Of course, originally, Frist had expected to have the immigration bill signed and delivered to Bush on a silver platter before the end of last week, but that wasn't meant to be. For the moment, at least. The bill is not dead, supposedly.

In Washington, they'll carry over the bickering from last week. Democrats are blaming Republicans and vice versa. Then there's the in-party fighting. Really, no one wants to touch this topic with a ten-foot pole. It'll be career suicide for most politicians.

Bush is playing the blame game, too, with Harry Reid. In his weekly radio address, he called on Reid to "end his blocking tactics and allow the Senate to do its work and pass a fair, effective immigration reform bill."

Obviously, they wouldn't vote on it before Easter Break, and most obviously, the whole lot of them will let it slip to the shadows because, most likely, they don't intend to vote on it at all before mid-term elections.

There's so much flip-flopping going on, and Bush is the cause of a lot of it. One cannot expect to placate both sides of the Republican party. The poor guy living in his trailer in Tennessee who wants stronger security for America isn't going to care about the rich businessman in Salt Lake City who relies on cheap labor to fill positions.

I've seen it from both sides of the issue. I grew up around small towns which relied on big corporations to build factories and employ the locals. In those parts of Indiana back in the 1990s, one saw a sea of white faces with a few black, but nothing else. The region flew head-first into the new millennium when people were getting laid off by local factories who chose to replace the workers with cheaper, Mexican labor brought from Chicago by the busloads. Those who were laid off didn't care about helping out someone from another country...they cared about being able to feed their families and pay their bills.

However, most didn't blame the factories that brought in the workers, and that's whom should be blamed the most.

Now, I live in a big-market city which thrives on the local minorities running the small shops and fast food joints where the white office workers go during and after work. Several large parts of the city would be vacant, and businesses wouldn't open if the immigrants were forced out.

So what should we do?

It's a tough question to answer because we hurt people either way.

Tags: [immigration issue], [Sensenbrenner bill], [what to do with illegal immigrants], [Democrats], [Republicans], [Bush], [Congress], [Bill Frist], [Harry Reid], [voting block for immigration bill], [Bush blames Harry Reid for bill hold-up], [protesting still going strong]