Palm Sunday Protest

The protest, called by Oregon's Farmworker Union, PCUN and endorsed by a number of unions and labor organizations including Jobs with Justice and VOZ - the Worker's Rights Education Project, was a prelude to Monday's National Day of Action for Immigrants Rights, which all told drew hundreds of thousands to the streets to express opposition to pending anti-immigration legislation in Congress. These events build on several weeks of mass protest on this issue in what is turning out to be one of the largest expressions of decentralized, coordinated protest that US society has ever seen.

Though most of the protests took place on Monday, PCUN chose to hold its protest on Sunday -- Palm Sunday. This was not intentional, but a few folks, like me, brought their palm branches from church to the protest. Palm Sunday falls a week before Easter, and is the day Christians remember Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem amidst a parade of supporters.

Several hours before yesterday's convergence, Rev. Gail McDougle of Salem's First Congregational United Church of Christ reflected on this parade. She reminded her congregation that it was actually one of two parades that converged on Jerusalem that day, the other being "a flood of overlords and soldiers" gathered to enforce Pax Romana during a "testy" time in the Jewish year. "This imperial parade was intended to produce both shock and awe," said Rev. McDougle.

It is indeed such a testy time right now in the life of Pax Americana, and we are seeing the parade of shock and awe enter into our cities. The flood of anti-immigrant legislation that has filled our lawmaking halls and captivated our attention with talk of building walls across deserts and criminalizing those who would aid the desperate. At several points, this talk has revealed its true nature as the rhetoric of control has slipped into the rhetoric of aggression.

But another parade is also entering into our cities. Like the followers of Jesus it is an eclectic bunch, cobbling an identity together from a variety of sources. And like those who danced into Jerusalem, it is a group intentionally claiming the rights to a heritage despite the protests of some guardians of that heritage. Then, the heritage was the promise provided to the people of Israel that a messiah -- a true king -- would rise up who would lead the people to freedom. Words like "king" and "kingdom" were wrested from the grasp of imperial Rome and claimed in the service of this vision. By this act, every time Christians use the word "King" the entire question of the nature of authority is called.

Today, the contested heritage is differently voiced, but similarly aligned. The words being wrested now are "union," "democracy," "united we stand," and "liberty and justice for all." Protesters in this parade literally draped themselves with the American flag, often alongside the flag of their country of origin, to make this point. By this act, the very nature of these words is called into question, and thus can never again be answered simply: what is our union? what is the core of our unity? what is it that brings us together?

Amidst this, I am like the little children who waved the palm branches as Jesus approached -- today replaced by drivers who honked their car horns in eager anticipation of the unfolding consciousness. Together we cry, "Hosanna! Blessed are the ones who come in the name of Union!"