A Penny More a Pound

Immokalee workers and Nashville Friends

We were 50 people nearly half of whom looked like me ---  senior citizens.  One woman marched behind her walker.  We were met at the entrance of Pubix by a security force called in for the occasion which struck me as humorous.  I suggested to my friend  that  she should use her walker to hit one of the security officers over the head .  Were she willing to do that  perhaps we might have gotten some press coverage, but not a single T.V. channel or newspaper covered this protest.

We met at Vine Street Church of Christ.  We were United Methodists, Disciples of Christ, Friends, social activists all.  We listened to Immokalee tomato pickers, we lifted the 34 pound tomato buckets and contemplated spending the entire day on our hands and knees picking for 2 pennies a pound. 

We carried our signs and chanted and handed out literature.  Many people just giggled or ignored us. Older people who remembered the upheaval of the 60s had no patience with us.  When did we become a nation of people who can turn our backs so easily on unpleasant truths.  It is time, friends to acknowledge that all people who work need to earn a living with dignity and receive health care....I'll be giving an extra penny a pound when I buy tomatoes at Publix, but I will ask the manager to receive my pennies to remind him/her that many of us are more than willing to pay the increase we ask for the workers --- for fairness to our hard working neighbors in Florida.