It was about 1946. WWII was over. My father was still working in the oil
fields, where he had worked for the entire war.
He had tried to join the Merchant Marines (too old for the draft), but
when it was discovered that he was working in the oil fields, he was told to go
back and keep on drilling – that the oil was just as vital for the war
effort. Which it was, although not
nearly as fulfilling. Anyway, the war
was over, and the AFL-CIO, as it was known in those days, wanted to unionize
the oil field workers. The company my
Dad worked for was Texaco, and the mucky-mucks came to my Dad and told him that
the company wanted to form a company union, and they wanted my Dad to head it
up. Which, being a loyal employee he
did, successfully, and the AFL-CIO lost out in the election. Not too long after the company dissolved the
company union, leaving the workers without recourse. My Dad never really recovered from that. It took me several years to finally figure
out what had happened, and needless to say, I became quite suspicious of
corporations if they promised anything.
Skipping ahead to around 1965 when my
own family lived in Fresno, I decided to get healthy and lose weight after
having five kids, so I joined an exercise place called Gloria Marshalls. While there one day I overheard one of the
other ladies talking that she owned a raspberry farm south of Fresno, and those
“blankety blank” farm workers were really making trouble. They even wanted a place to wash their hands
after “taking a leak”. I was horrified
that they didn’t have a place, frankly, and told her I would never buy another
raspberry from any store! The problem
was that it was the time that Cesar Chavez was attempting to organize the farm
workers, and sentiments were really running high.
In the early 1970’s we moved nearer
Fresno State when we realized we would have four kids in college at the same
time. This way they could live at home
so long as they were in school. I
attended the Newman Center attached to Fresno State, and was elected to the
Pastoral Council. At that time there was
a real problem at the Center because it needed a source of funding in order to
provide the services it wanted to provide the students and parishioners. It was decided that if a rental agreement
could be decided on, renting the hall would be a great source of funding. About half of the council supported Cesar
Chavez, but the other half certainly did not.
As a result the two sides could not agree on who could or could not rent
the hall. Both had written up criteria
for the rental agreement, but could not agree on whose should be adopted. Being an optimist and new to the council, I
offered to try to resolve the two documents.
When I got them together, side by
side, I realized they were almost identical.
There were a few minor issues that could easily be resolved. So I put the two documents into one, took the
one back to the next meeting, and both sides were thrilled that I had taken
their document!! It was after the rental
agreement was approved, and we had used it successfully a couple of times, that
I told them what I had done. What a
lesson for me that was. Listen to both
sides of an argument because often people assume that the other side is wrong
when they don’t even know what it is!!
So, admittedly I have a “preferential
option for the poor”, and have had ever since that term came into usage from
the advent of Liberation Theology, and I have an antipathy toward corporations
and people who adamantly oppose unions and support corporations. Consequently I have a real difficulty with trying
to reconcile the radical-rights determination to cut all programs that benefit
poor people, while at the same time protecting the finances of tremendously wealthy
individuals and corporations. It is
impossible to sit down with a list of reasons for cutting benefits and reasons
for not increasing taxes and then reconciling the two.
The mind-sets of the two points of
view are so divergent that for some it is impossible to even think through to the
other’s viewpoint. In Fresno in the 1960’s
and ‘70’s, although no one really wanted to admit it, there was a great deal of
innate racism involved as well as a fear of losing profits. It is the same now with Paul Ryan’s comments
about “inner city men” and Romney’s infamous discussion of the 49%, or the
former Lt. Gov. of some southern state who said you didn’t want to feed animals
and poor people because they just reproduce.
And to be fair, on my side are too many people who can’t get past thinking
that the radical right are just greedy wolves who don’t want to share a nickel.
Perhaps what we need is a Peace and
Reconciliation Commission based on the one established in South Africa after
the dissolution of apartheid. God, we
need something!!
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