Don't Go Into The Light

There were lots of immigration protest events yesterday, one was held in my hometown of Newark, Delaware. It was advertised quite heavily on local radio as a candlelight vigil to begin at 6 PM. I was there from 6:10 P.M. until 7:05 P.M., the following are pictures from the event.

Turnout was extremely light - I'm assuming that in addition to the fact that this isn't as big of an issue in northern Delaware as it is in the southwestern US, the day and time worked against the organizers as well - many of the target audience were just getting off work and more concerned with getting dinner than attending a march. And being a reasonable driving distance from DC and Philly, I suspect that many serious activists spent their day at other events.

ACORN was the organizer of the event. While their mission of registering voters dovetailed nicely with the event's theme of "today we march, tomorrow we vote", there was no active courting of voters yesterday. The folks in attendance I spoke with were entirely focused on the perception that HB4437 would turn priests and social workers into felons for assisting illegal aliens.

Noticably absent were flags of any kind except for those drawn on a couple of signs. Also, no sign of the communist/socialist element that attended other gatherings around the country, and there were no incendiary t-shirts. While I disagree wholeheartedly with their goal of amnesty, everyone I spoke with was friendly and polite, and were seemingly unconcerned about my views. Indeed, the tone and mood was less like a protest and more like a backyard BBQ.

On to the pictures - the thumbs are all heavily cropped, click on them to get the larger uncropped versions:

The vigil was held in a neighborhood park. In the popup, you'll see a cluster of people behind the sign. Yes, that's the protest. The organizers were disappointed but unsurprised at the turnout.

They certainly picked the right neighborhood - signs like this were posted in several places.

Here's the ACORN table. The fellow with the camera and microphone was from a local radio station, no other media attended.

Another angle showing the vigil.

No protest is complete without signs. All of theirs were taped to park fencing and signage, no sign waving here.

Ick.

No comment.

After I left, the crowd grew to well over a dozen, and they finally lit the candles. The reporter from WDEL filed a video report here. No, I'm not in the video.

In summary, this was a bust attendance-wise. But I'm still glad I went. This event stood out as a sharp contrast to the more spectacular protests elsewhere in the country. No yelling, chanting or megaphones, and the attendees with were all uniformly nice and well-behaved. Their message, however misguided I feel it to be, was free of the communist/socialist/Che/anarchist garbage seen at other events. Perhaps that makes this a unique and notable story.

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