Friends,
Did you get the chance to hear Dolores Huerta a couple weeks ago – the civil rights and labor leader extraordinaire still organizing and advocating at age 89?! She wowed an overflow crowd at IU during Hispanic Heritage Month.
Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez. He got more of the national attention, but she was at least the equal in impact and energy. (And btw it was she who made “Si se puede” the famous rallying cry – despite its connections to two other men.) I still remember as a kid my family supporting the grape boycott, and how it raised national awareness (and won positive results for workers).
Huerta began as a school teacher in the 1950s, but said “I couldn't tolerate seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children.” And she did. Look her up – she’s an inspiration.
You feel Huerta’s moral condemnation against national trends today: attacks on immigrants and assaults on programs that help hungry families; cutting health care to poor women and families and loosening protections against environmental toxins; giant tax cuts to the privileged, and a criminally low minimum wage.
Huerta knows that as a country we’re lately becoming desensitized, and we need to wake up. I can hear her call for leadership to reclaim our country from the gangster at the top and all those who accommodate him. These past couple of weeks have shown how off the rails our national government has fallen. It’s come back time. Listen, Dolores Huerta is calling us.
Si se puede. SI SE PUEDE!!!!
Democratically yours,
John
P.S. Democracy Lab is one local effort to re-sensitize and re-organize. Our campaign supports eleven local organizations, thru the county Democratic Party, who all work for justice and opportunity. They are part of the Si se puede gang. Please consider helping us support them with a small donation; check out the details here.
Democracy Lab organizations:
Democracy for Monroe County
Democratic Women's Caucus
Indiana Latino Democratic Caucus--9th District
Indiana Young Democrats of Monroe County
Indivisible
Monroe County Black Democratic Caucus
Monroe County NOW
Ninth District Disability Caucus
No Space for Hate
Planned Parenthood
Stonewall Democrats of South Central Indiana