Sleep well, America.
Tomorrow you will be shaken from your nap.
Unless I miss my guess, tomorrow's crowds of immigrants in the streets will be the subject of every news report.
It is still possible that some unforseen event will dominate the news. As people in the business know well, news isn't planned; it is reported. But all that I have read since March 26 indicates that April 10 will be historic. It will be so big that weather will not affect the impact, because no inclement weather can cover North America all at once. Storms may dampen parts of the event locally. But at the end of the day a historic mark will have been made.
Looking at the usual suspects, I can't find any indication tonight that anyone in a position to know has any idea that the next twenty-four hours will be different from the last twenty-four. If anyone in a position of leadership has any suspicions they are keeping quiet, lest they be accused afterward of being part of the cause.
It is likely that security people are making preparations, police forces and the like. Whenever large crowds of demonstrators might be in the streets safety and security are always a high priority, and professionals in that line of work make it their business to prepare, like firemen or weather forecasters, to what can be expected to happen. (At least I hope that is true, although the federal response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was, can we say, less than impressive. It was state and local responses that spelled success or failure in the wake of those events.)
The media will be in hog heaven. There will be a veritable banquet of stories to pick from, good, bad and ugly. Human interest to Homeland Security. Cats to coyotes and everything inbetween. As I said in the previous post, pundits will be publishing reams of commentary aimed at spinning one agenda or another. Those of us sympathetic with the people in the streets will watch and hope that the sheer magnitude of the event will inspire prompt and realistic responses to temper the extremism and fundamentalism now forming a xenophobic subtext to American politics, both domestic and foreign.
People will be gather in breakrooms, backrooms and boardrooms trying to figure out what the hell is going on. By sundown I expect a kind of numb, dumb quiet to settle as those in positions of leadership try to evaluate what has happened and what should be their next best move. A great social tectonic plate is about to shift and everyone in America, like it or not, will be affected.
Beyond what I have written, I have no clue what might happen after tomorrow. Like everyone else I have opinions, inclinations and expectations. But nothing has happened simply because I wanted it to come to pass. More often than not, what has happened has occurred without my blessing and despite my good intentions. There is no reason to believe that the next months will unfold any differently.
Good night, all.
Sleep well.
Nathan Newman is ready.
So is Cole Crawitz.
Oh, and the spinning has already begun at Powerline. Already the event is being painted Communist. (I recall as though it were last week Southerners' insisting that Negroes would not be causing all that desegregation mess were it not for outside agitators!) Memeorandum will be the flower where all those bees assemble.
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