I didn’t expect to see my little hometown on the ‘No Kings” mass protest list scheduled for 6/14, but I checked anyway. When you live in a rural community, there’s not a lot of money or time invested on organizing protests. That’s a perk I appreciate. We just watch soy beans grow around here. 🙂
Looks like the nearest events planned are for Columbus, Bloomington, Bedford, Madison, and Nashville, IN. It’s 100% certain I won’t be going to any of them. In addition, I won’t be taking advantage of the free protestor training being offered.
California riots sparked a memory…
First, the facts… Over 90% of California’s farmworkers are immigrants, with estimates suggesting 40–70% are undocumented. California’s agricultural sector, valued at over $50 billion annually, faces disruptions from labor shortages. The state is the nation’s top producer of crops like almonds, lettuce, and strawberries, and a labor shortfall could lead to a 10% increase in food prices nationally.
And now, the memory… When I was still a kid (many moons ago), I remember Morgan Foods would bus in Mexicans to work the fields. One day a week, they would bus those Mexicans to our family owned grocery store to shop. I remember they loved head cheese (never forgotten because I thought that was the nastiest stuff on the planet), and beef tongue. I don’t remember even one not being polite and kind even to a kid like me.
Dad was a butcher by trade, but he refused to process their donkeys and horses even upon request. My inexperienced and youthful brain perceived them to be poor people that didn’t speak English that ate nasty shit.
Of course, my memory doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on in LA right now.
My memory is just that… a memory of something experienced in rural Indiana a long time ago. It’s likely all those tomato pickers from Austin that were so grateful to have a grocery store to shop in who catered to their needs are long dead. In all the footage I’ve seen of what’s going on in California, there’s not one that remotely resembles those from my long ago memory.
The lack of respect at the LA protest/unlawful assembly makes me sad — and mad, actually. I watched a woman protester blowing bubbles in the face of an officer. He stood there unmoving while she kept dipping her bubble stick in the bottle and puffing out more. I don’t think I could’ve done that. In addition, when the crowd was yelling, “ICE out of LA,” I thought they were saying, “I saw the ballet.” 🙂
Now you know: When his son, Xinzhen, was abducted by a child trafficker in 1997, Guo Gangtang spent 24 years of his life and all his savings on a search for him across China. They were finally reunited in 2021, and his efforts helped the Chinese authorities find over 100 more abducted children.