Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Bakersfield debate re migrants

Cesar Chavez, 1966

Bakersfield is a town famous for its migrant farm workers in the 1930s.  Cesar Chavez helped later workers to organize in the 1970s, and Chavez National Monument now honors him near Keene, CA.

John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath about a family who migrated to the lower San Joaquin Valley during the Great Depression.

Pete Seeger wrote ballads such as "This Land Is My Land" about these workers.

But now Bakersfield's sheriff Donny Youngblood has proposed declaring Kern County, which includes Bakersfield, to be a "non-sanctuary county."

He wants to make a dramatic statement against cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, which are sanctuary cities.

This would dishonor all the migrant workers who have built agriculture in Kern County.

Thank you to The Bakersfield Californian for its editorial today speaking out against the proposal by Youngblood.

http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/our-view-non-sanctuary-proposal-sends-a-bad-message/article_c33596ef-ffe9-5ed1-b724-d16ef79f108a.html#tncms-source=article-nav-prev

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