Thursday, 28 JUNE 2018

The time goes by so fast, I hardly see the day's list of things to get done until it is too late!  I better get this done before I get carried away with other things.

I watched my "new" used DVD/documentary called "FOOD CHAINS" today, and I think I have seen at least parts of it before.  I must have watched it on Netflix at some time.  I am glad I have it for my collection.  The migrant issue is something I care about.

I grew up in the Los Angeles area and saw some of the things that were affected by it, but I was a child so my impressions were of the hard work of these people... mostly in construction in urban areas.  I knew of the farm workers movement, but it was just another news issue to me then.  I don't really remember watching a lot of news as a youth...it just wasn't something us kids did.

My heart is concerned with suffering people and poverty.  It doesn't take a lot of information to see that the migrant workers are oppressed and abused, and that hasn't changed in my adult life.  I do wonder what has happened since the DVD and the people it shared with the world were made.

My own desire to build staff housing for Working Together led to my suggestion that the current immigration conversations should include the option for employers to commit to providing decent year-round housing for the people who do their "grunt work" in the fields, and in the factories, etc. - which would make the status of those workers legal. If they are facing abuse at their workplaces, they can at least find someone to help them without fear of deportation and jail and dangers for their families.  It won't solve all the corruption and greed in communities built around one industry, but it will offer some legal recourse for those being abused.

It has always been my opinion that the wage ladder begins at the bottom and then goes upward... in this issue, the farmworkers should all be paid a fair wage for a fair day's work...  in the US labor laws, travel time and waiting time for a job that you are hired to do is considered work time.  In the DVD it was stated that migrant families had to leave at 5am and didn't get back until 8 or 10 pm, I can't recall... but they only got paid for the hours they worked in the fields and were paid by each pail of tomatoes they picked and delivered to the truck.

I cringed at that information, especially where mothers were concerned.

It seems the "company housing" offered for seasonal workers was so high in rent charges they had to have 15 workers in each one.  Is that right?  I don't think so.  I doubt anyone would want their family put into this kind of situation.

If I had money....  I think I would do what I could do to change the system with a new work of my own... Monsanto issues with seeds and the destruction of farmers is another agricultural battlefield, with the pesticide issues for workers involved in both controversies.  To make new farms without these terrible practices would be a great way to do battle...  To create smaller farms, to create migrant worker co-ops, to create private lending options for the small farm needs, to do whatever is necessary to make this problem right is my idea of a fight.  

I wonder if that is why I haven't been able to gather any money to do all this...  hmmmmm, could be, I don't know.

I have been thinking about these problems in America for some time... this film just reminded me of the differences in viewpoint of corporations and the "little people," especially when it comes to those profit figures.  When I see a huge multi-national company is making billions in "profits" and the ones fighting to get some of that money, I have to wonder what the real details are.  Does that "profit" include the expenses of the year, or the needs of the next year... the wages, overhead, equipment, stock, growth, etc...and any company with shareholders has to pay a dividend to them... how much is really profit, and how much is really business funds.

If these profits are used to pay ridiculous wages to anyone in the company, then there is a problem.  If these profits are distributed fairly, to each level of operations, and each job, and each location, how much they make is not a matter for discussion.  Companies are created to make money.

I hope the situation changes, but I doubt it will.  Human nature has to find someone else to degrade in order to feel better about themselves.  If these are people who claim to love GOD, their decisions will be judged by GOD.  If you read the Bible carefully, you will see that GOD LOVES the poor, the fatherless, and the stranger... and cattle (who knows why!)… and He has promised to judge those who hurt and abuse these people He loves.  In watching this film again, I have been wondering how GOD will judge these corporations who do not stand with what GOD says is right to do.  I wonder how He will judge America for it's ungodly choices, too.

So, now I move on to the next thing to do... and all the serious issues that matter to me will go into my history...  just waiting to be resurrected again, hoping that some day I might be able to do something to help change the world in this arena and others.  One person, what can I do?  I don't know, I just keep looking for it.

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us

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May GOD help us to see ourselves as He sees us.
May we choose to care.
May our lives mean more than money.
May America stand for better things than it does now.
May I be allowed to be part of the solutions I see to some of these issues.
Amen.