Nationwide "Families Belong Together Rally" In Santa Barbara
The following is an excerpt from an Edhat article which can be found here (https://www.edhat.com/news/nationwide-families-belong-together-rally-in-santa-barbara)
"Families Belong Together" was the rally and theme Saturday at De La Guerra Plaza. Followed by a march up State Street. This was the second time in less than two weeks and the numbers were massive. Event organizers estimated 2,000 people.
Here are all of my photos and a video!
Hundreds of thousands more rallied in over 700 cities the same day. President Trump had ordered children be taken from families at the border who were legally seeking asylum. This was an unprecedented increase of anti-immigrant action by the Trump Administration and it created outrage among even many Trump supporters. While Trump has been forced to back down from new family separations, most of the same policies are still in place.
It did not help when First Lady Melania Trump wore a jacket reading "I REALLY DON'T CARE DO U?"
A number of rally signs responded to this:
"Papa Papa Where Are You?" refers to chilling recordings of children who were crying out for their parents
Folk music welcomed people as they gathered
The rally convened with Native American musician Emiliano Campobello performing his Sacred Winds Music
Event organizer Michal Lynch carefully planned the schedule to keep things moving as sound man Gary Atkins stood by and the next speaker stood ready behind her.
The next speaker was a Nigerian-American woman named Uru who talked about choosing our words wisely. She is the Youth Ambassador for our United Nations Association of Santa Barbara and Tri-Counties.
She explained that words like "them" and "those people" create divisions. We are all one people. Only a small minority of people mean harm. The problem is when others stand by and do nothing. We must speak up when we hear divisive language. She then went on to sing a song.
The rest of the article can be found here: https://www.edhat.com/news/nationwide-families-belong-together-rally-in-santa-barbara