Current Event #6

Original Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/28/bishop-arrested-immigration-rally_n_5050704.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

Sally Dyck, Methodist Bishop, Arrested At Chicago Immigration Reform Rally

Protesters protesting the deportations

A protest that included an estimated five hundred people outside the Chicago office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency resulted in the arrests of forty people, including ten Methodist pastors. The group was protesting against the current immigration policy of the United States and how immigrant families are disrupted by the enforcement of the law. According to a letter to the President published in this article, the leader of the protests, Methodist Bishop Sally Dyck, says “I participated in civil disobedience because I find the policy of mass deportations to be morally reprehensible and one that must end.”

The connection to what we are doing in class is the story of Antigone, by Sophocles. Antigone was the sister of Eteocles and Polynices.  After their father dies, his sons (Eteocles and Polynices) are to share the rule of Thebes. The two quarreled over how this was to be done and Polynices formed an army and attacked the city of Thebes. The army of Thebes was led by his brother, Eteocles. Both brothers are killed and a man named Creon becomes the ruler of Thebes. His orders are that the body of Polynices is to be left on the battlefield to rot. Antigone has the moral choice of following a law which she felt was immoral or to follow the customs of her faith and bury her dead brother, Polynices. She chooses to follow her morals and is sentenced to be buried alive for her disobedience – she kills herself before this can happen.

My reaction to this story is that I want to learn more about why people are being sent back to other countries when they have come here to get a better life. The story talks about a family that’s been split up, and I don’t understand why a family would be split up, even if they are not here legally. The protesters want the President to do something about this, but passing laws is something that Congress has to do, not the President. This event does not affect me personally, except that I have friends whose parents were born in other countries, like Mexico.

The author of the article is taking the protesters side of the issue since he has no interviews or quotes from anyone in the government. He uses language in the article such as “…March 27 rally to demand President Obama cease deportations until humane immigration reform is passed”. The author also tells that the Methodist Church “has in recent months thrown support behind a growing immigration reform movement, building upon the denomination's Interagency Task Force on Immigration”. By describing the movement as ‘growing’, the author says that more people are in support of changing how immigrants are treated.

Blumberg, Antonia. "Sally Dyck, Methodist Bishop, Arrested At Chicago Immigration Reform Rally." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 Mar. 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/28/bishop-arrested-immigration-rally_n_5050704.html?utm_hp_ref=religion>.

Vollmer, Micheal. Protestors. 2014. Huffington Post. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. < http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/28/bishop-arrested-immigration-rally_n_5050704.html?utm_hp_ref=religion>.