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Way back in 1976, when I was a theatre arts major in college, I took a course in Black Theatre History. I was in a production of Douglas Turner Ward’s classic farce called “A Day Of Absence”. It was a play about a small Southern town that wakes up one day to find that all of its black citizens have disappeared. With the exception of myself, black actors played all of the roles in white face, sort of a reverse minstrel show.
Hilarity ensues when, with all of its black citizens gone, the town falls apart. Caregivers gone, trash not being picked up, and houses not cleaned. The white citizens eventually realize just how much they missed the black work force and beg them to return. It was first produced in 1965 and it was a very funny high concept fantasy.
The concept, even though a fantasy, has been attempted a couple of times over the years in real life with, of course, mixed results. The most recent attempt was last Monday’s “A Day Without Immigrants”. Mr. Ward might be flattered by the “life imitates art” nod but for anyone who thinks about it for a second, knows it wouldn’t work off the stage. It is, after all, a fantasy.
Fantasy or not, that didn’t stop thousands of people from taking to the streets in an attempt to damage our country by stopping free enterprise in the cities where they congregated. They wanted to shut down entire cities in order to show how important the illegal alien work force was. Their lofty vision was to have the same effect as “A Day of Absence” had. But the day after, it was painfully clear that it had missed the mark by a mile.
Nope, the hype didn’t live up to the results. The news wanted to save face by pointing out every little thing and place that was affected by the “boycott”, but their examples were weak at best. The Pasadena Star News flashed a headline saying “Day Without Immigrants Takes Toll on Local Businesses”. After reading the article it was obvious that they were grasping at straws to live up to their headline.
In the article, one woman bemoans the fact that the restaurant she wanted to eat at was closed. Of course the article did not mention which “café” it was. Then there was the guy who couldn’t have sushi because the place he wanted to go to was closed. Well to those two people, all I have to say is are you fucking crazy or lazy? Do you have any idea how many restaurants there are in Pasadena? In particular, how many sushi restaurants? I passed at least four on Monday and they were all open.
They also chronicled how many students were missing from class that day, which was paltry at best, and hardly worth the ink to print. Nope, no matter how hard they tried, the numbers and trauma that the “boycott” was to cause, just wasn’t there.
Speaking of numbers, do you wonder, as I do, where the hell they come up with the numbers on the size of the crowds at these events? Do they have little turnstiles with counters on them that the people pass through? Or is there some equation that helicopter pilots can use by measuring the crowds from the air?
The way that everyone in the news throws around numbers like 400,000, 500,000 and a million is outrageous. They can no more give an accurate count of how many people are in these crowds than get a count on how many illegal aliens are in this country. They do it to for no other reason than to up the shock factor in whatever story they are reporting on.
That shock factor didn’t quite pan out this time around though. As a matter of fact, as each day goes by, the backlash continues to build and the majority of people are getting sick and tired of the entire circus. The boycott was supposed to be a dramatic example of the importance of the illegal immigrant work force, but as anyone who was out and about on the big day saw that not much changed.
Well let me take that back, there were a couple of things that were different. The most dramatic being that traffic was notably lighter. The other was the absence of ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks, which living where I do, I usually hear multiple times a day, everyday. Even when I was out doing as much shopping as I could do that day I didn’t see or hear one emergency vehicle the entire time. The absence of sirens was deafening.
Just in case you were wondering why I was “out doing as much shopping as I could do that day” it was just my little way of killing two birds with one stone. First was to do my little part to help circumvent the potential advertised terrorist threat to our economy spearheaded by a group of people that are in this country illegally. Second was to see for myself if there was any fall out from the actions of the terrorists. In essence to see if I would I be able to function on a “day without immigrants”.
Well the answer to that last query is yes and to be honest, it was even easier than usual. The entire experience from the time I got in my car, because of the aforementioned lighter than usual traffic, to the stores that I shopped in, everything went as smooth if not smoother than a normal day. In this area there was no place that I wanted to go to that I couldn’t. As I drove around I was hard pressed to find any place that was closed. If the San Gabriel Valley was any barometer, I would say if the illegal aliens were deported, our world would not collapse.
To sum up the effectiveness of the “day without immigrants” I would have to say that it was very effective. It showed the majority of Americans that the illegal immigrants do not care about our country, they only care about themselves, and are willing to do anything to keep our faulty system just as it is. It effectively showed that we would not self-destruct if they went missing, we would only cut down on our drive time. I guess we owe them all a big thank you for proving what many of us knew to begin with.
What is their next plan of attack? They want to try to mobilize their “masses” with a voter registration drive in hopes of intimidating our elected officials. Hmm, now what is wrong with that picture? Could it be that illegal aliens are not allowed to vote? Or are they planning to use their false ID’s to register to vote? Who knows? Even though I don’t have much faith in politicians I have to believe that they are smart enough to see through this thinly veiled attempt by the illegals to threaten or sway them into voting in their favor when whatever bill surfaces.
Threatening the American economy, our elected officials, and the attempted disruption of our daily lives, I don’t think that these are the types of citizens our country needs or wants.
I guess it is time for a real “A Day of Absence”. One that is not voluntary, but mandatory.
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