Acting on a tip that International A.N.S.W.E.R. might be sponsoring a bigtime commie demo in Philadelphia, I found the organizers' web site, which in turn directed me to the local web site which coordinated the Philadelphia demo, held today by this organization at Love Park.

I'm sorry to disappoint anyone, but I don't have anything nearly as dramatic as the attack on this blogger which Glenn Reynolds reported earlier.

There's not much to report from Philadelphia by way of smashed cameras, or violence of any kind. The demonstrators were polite, they tried to appear as pro-American as they could (many shouts of "Viva America!") and, but for a few obnoxiously amusing white demonstrators, the entire thing was so tame as to be very commendably boring.

A few interesting (if not inflammatory) signs were there -- mostly waved by the same Socialist Workers Party/Revolutionary Workers Party types who always show up at demonstrations. I expected more of them, and I was a little disappointed, because I took the train all the way downtown for no other reason than to attend the demonstration.

The huge majority of people in the crowd were Mexicans and various Central Americans, and they behaved politely and for the most part carried and waved American flags, along with signs with a favorite American quotation from the Declaration of Independence.

Typical example:

Much as I hate to sound biased, the fact is, my photographs today seem to favor white yanqui leftists, even though they were in the minority. Perhaps this is because I'm homesick for Berkeley; who knows?

Anyway, here's a very Berkeley-looking older couple who don't think any human is illegal:

Meanwhile, a young white guy is (apparently) making the assertion that only aliens from other planets should have to face the immigration authorities when crossing U.S. borders:

This young woman is definitely down with Bush:

Here are some zealous revolutionary workers who are, like, zealously working for revolution:

On the other hand, the Socialist Workers Party party members are zealously working for socialism! (Note the Arabic! Very cool. And very international.)

In all fairness, however, I don't think too many members of the crowd were into socialismo. They know it didn't work all that well in Mexico, and who knows? it may be a reason why so many of them came here.

Here's one guy who doesn't seems to feel that socialismo is the best way to run the economia!

Si! Muerte a socialismo!

THE SIGNS

This was Love Park, so the biggest sign, of course was the famous LOVE sign, a famous Philadelphia icon which once made it onto a US stamp:

The smallest signs were these "DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME" stickers, but again, they were preferred by whites only, and I didn't see one such sticker on any Hispanic demonstrator:

Here's a sign with which I must take issue, though:

First of all, it should say "the only people who"! The only people that is just wrong wrong wrong. Everybody makes grammatical errors (I do it all the time, and it's inevitable in blogging), but on a huge sign? Tacky! And INMIGRANTS? What the hell is an "inmigrant"? There's no such word. Two errors -- one grammatical and one (arguably) spelling -- on the same sign! And that's before I even had time to think about the sign-writer's central thesis (whether the Native Americans who crossed the Bering Strait were immigrants). I know it sounds harsh, but I'd have to give that sign an "F" grade.

The next sign asks an interesting but premature legal question, unless the sign holder is a felon for other reasons. But if so, why ask the crowd?

The next woman is making what she obviously feels is a very profound political statement about Senator Sensenbrenner's name not sounding "native":

As to flags, while the vast majority were U.S. flags, there was plenty of overlapping like this (which might be said to be proper if the intent is to demonstrate friendship between the two countries):

There were also some lone Mexican flags flying, like this one, shown advancing in the direction of City Hall:

I'm afraid the way the next one is displayed violates all sense of flag etiquette, and does not reflect well on today's cause:

Where did they get the flags? The American flags were mostly plastic, and handed out free. Here's how they looked, ready for the asking (even if they are lying next to commie literature):

But if you wanted a Mexican or Central American flag, you had to buy one from one of the several vendors who sold them out of shopping carts:

And no, they did NOT sell either Danish or Israeli flags! If I'd had some time to plan this thing, I'd have brought one (probably a Danish flag), because they kept talking about how all countries were in the world together and we're all part of this equality thing, etc.

Sheesh. The stuff I forget.

As to the fate of the plastic American flags, I hope this wasn't typical, but I didn't have to look hard to find it. Just glanced inside a trashcan:

Despite the hoopla, that flag looked so forlorn sitting there that I actually felt sorry for it, and I brought it home. Who knows what might explain such crass jingoism on my part?

After the demo, it was back to the burbs:

I have some video, but I don't know whether anyone would want to stream it. I think this is enough uploading for today.

All in all, the demonstrators made their point in a civil manner. I wasn't influenced one way or another in my thinking, as I remain opposed to the Sensenbrenner bill, and for closing the border.

(But I'm not trying to join any movement. Just showing up at a demo makes me want to drink.)

UPDATE: Here's one I missed of another sign expressing a profoundly illogical sentiment:

That sign reminds me of the inability (unwillingness is more likely) of leftists to understand the distinction between "native" and "immigrant." People who understand the ordinary meaning of words know that the former means someone who was born in a particular country, while the latter means someone who moved there. Leftists, however, believe that "native" means other than being born in a place, and they think it involves race. They think that the word "immigrant" denotes not the immigration of a living person, but the previous immigration of that person's ancestors, or his group. They like to say "we are all immigrants," (except, somehow Indians and Mexicans) when they should say "we are all descended from immigrants." It's their form of ancestry-based, who's-been-here-longer snobbishness. Thus, people who were born in this country who are white are all said to be "immigrants." But not Mexicans or Indians, who are said to be "native." The latter have superior "rights" based on their ancestry.

The above woman's assertion that "the border crossed them" is rank nonsense. The current border between the United States and Mexico dates from 1848 and the 1853 Gadsden Purchase. No one is alive today who was even arguably "crossed" by the border. People who were born in the portion which had previously been part of Mexico became citizens here, and people to the South remained Mexican citizens. People alive today were born in one country or the other. Not one of them was "crossed."

Sigh.

But would a rational discussion with the above woman be of any value?

MORE: Via Glenn Reynolds, I see general similarities between the demonstration held here and the ones in Rochester, New York, and Dallas.

AND MORE: Also from Glenn's link, here's Hog Haven, reporting from the protest in DC:

“We Are All Immigrants”? How can you be an immigrant if you are born here?

And reading Byron York's post, it appears that International A.N.S.W.E.R. deliberately laid low. Or appeared to.

MORE: I'm with Glenn. Annex Mexico. A free economy is obviously what they need or they wouldn't come here -- and if yanquis don't want to do our own dirty work, and no one wants to be bothered with the border, instead of Reconquista, let's just reGadsdenize.

UPDATE (03/11/06): Thank you kindly, Glenn Reynolds for the link and the nice remarks. Welcome all!

(¡Y bienvenidos a los Estados Perdidos Mexicanos!)

MORE: Via Glenn Reynolds, John at Power Line reports that International A.N.S.W.E.R.'s signs outnumbered all the other signs and banners in New York:

Look at the sea of yellow and black, International A.N.S.W.E.R. signs. They vastly outnumber all other signs and banners. They are the dominant visual image of the New York demonstration. It is inconceivable that the Times' reporters could have failed to note the prominent role played by A.N.S.W.E.R. in running the demonstration, or the dominant role played by that group in equipping the protesters with signs. Yet the organization's role was not acknowledged by the Times, or, to my knowledge, by any other newspaper. Why? The Times' reporters were obviously aware of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s prominent involvement, and thirty seconds' worth of research would have disclosed the fact that the group is an unabashedly Communist organization. It wouldn't have taken much more than that to learn that A.N.S.W.E.R.'s National Coordinator has said that illegal immigration can be the "catalyst for a broader class struggle, even possibly a revolutionary struggle."