The day after inauguration: MARCH FOR IMMIGRATION FORM

By Claudia Ricci

Whether we are one of the millions converging on the Mall in DC, or we are sitting in the living room in South Dakota or Saint Lous or Denver or Detroit glued to the TV, we are all riveted on Tuesday's inaugural events. We are a nation waiting for an extraordinary chapter in our history to unfold.

But once Tuesday's excitement comes to a close, there will be Wednesday, January 21st. And that's the day when our real task begins: changing the way this nation has governed for the past eight years.

One event that deserves our attention -- and that of the Obama admininstration -- right after inauguration, is immigration reform. Toward that end, there is a march in DC on Wednesday, January 21st, organized by a group called the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, or FIRM.

FIRM is a project of the Center for Community Change, a national network of local and state community organizations. Their aim: "just and humane" immigration reform. Toward that end, the group has organized a march on the offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in DC. Their intention: to host "a ceremony to cleanse ICE of 8 years of repressive policies."

So if you are still in DC on Wednesday, and you want to say something important publicly about an issue that is crying to be fixed, join the folks converging on Benjamin Banneker Park, 10th & G Sts. SW, Washington, DC. The group will march to ICE's national headquarters at 500 12th St., SW, and from there, will proceed to an afternoon forum on immigration reform at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 400 I St.

As President-elect Obama has said, the election, and the inauguration, provide an extraordinary opportunity for change. The real work for change begins in the days after.