Saturday, February 27, 2010

18 miles


You've heard that expression of walking a mile in someone's shoes, well walking 18 in one day is intense I tell ya what. To fill you in, I helped in organizing the California Trail of Dreams with the Korean Resource Center and their affiliate NAKASEC. Today I got up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready with some coffee and some pb and J sandwiches. I met up with my friend and we made our way to the event. As always, it's better to have someone there with you to kick it and make it fun. It was raining all night long and in the morning it didn't look that good either.


The rally went off great, but the rain scared off a lot of the walkers and people that were going to participate. We had a few great speakers from different communities that tied the issue of immigration to everything from students to house wives. We started off really well and there was no rain in sight. Boy did that change.


In between our first stop and the second stop, there was a lot of walking done. I'm beat from the walk and my feet are aching so I'm not gonna give a detailed report here folks. Your lucky I'm actually writing something rather than just posting the pics alone. Anywho, the first stop was at a Federal Immigration Building and it was good. Had speakers say a few things and we even talked to the walkers out in Florida to keep our spirits high. We made our way east of the river and during our walk from the beginning to stop number one, I was blasting some Led Zep getting everyone in the mood to march.

For the Boyle Heights and East L.A. part, I shared some info about the community and how culturally diverse it is because not everyone comes to my part of town. Everyone liked it and I was cracking jokes the whole time. We made it to Salazar Park and I shared with everyone how on Feb 28, tomorrow, it'll be 40 years that Chicano students walked in the rain, much like we did today, to protest the Vietnam war and equal education for all. That's no coincidence. We rested and munched on subway. Mmm.   


Walking back we encountered HEAVY rain and we all had to bundle up. But we pushed through and even though going back was harder because we were all tired and sore, we powered on through chanting and looking out for each other. I of course cracked more jokes to keep everyone on their toes and to keep everyone alive.


By the time we got to the final stop I wanted to faint on the floor and pass out. Everything from the waste down was aching. My feet hurt and I had trouble walking after stopping. We walked through rain and met some great people along the way, but it was all worth it. We all came together to pull this off and it went off magically. We all hurt, but it's an experience we all shared and we can say we walked 18 miles in the rain. It's all part of the movement to pass the DREAM Act and immigration reform. Decades from now, we'll all be getting together and talking about that one time we walked 18 miles in the rain. When we're all successful professionals in our fields and we're calling each other Dr. awesome or Dr. Kick Ass.