Letters to the Senators

May 9, 2005

Attention Senators: Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, George Miller, Christopher Dodd, Edward Kennedy

 

Dear Senators,

I don’t know how or where to begin this letter of lamentation, for the subject I shall endeavor to address is beyond my scope of understanding. We face great problems in this world and they stem from a world that is under the control of the Price Index.

With the outsourcing of jobs, the lack of a “living” wage to balance our propensity toward inflation, and illegal immigrants crossing into our country to work the jobs we cannot afford to work, there are two sides to arguments that have permeated the dreams of my sleeping hours.

These horrific hauntings cast blame; first on the immigrants; and secondly, cause the naturalized citizens to feel unworthy of liberties they thought were guaranteed to them.

On the other side of the argument we see citizens citing laws that claim the illegal workers should suffer punishment while they incite the rest of us to rise against the cheap labor movement, with the concerns that shout at us harsh accusations such as, “They are killing unions: they are bleeding us dry causing the costs of our medical care to increase, are polluting our environment with the use of pesticides and other chemicals. They want us to turn into another polluted Mexico!”

But it is those who reap the largest profits who should be held accountable. Corporations and various industries are the largest exploiter of cheap labor and they are also the largest violators of human rights. It just so happens that “industrialized corporate farms” are the main employers here in California. They use deadly pesticides which are known endocrine disrupters and are responsible for birth defects and a marked increase of mental health disorders. They pollute the water drainage systems with their deadly silted runoff. They employ this cheap labor and subject these humans to these horrific toxins. If our President succeeds in squashing class action lawsuits, how on earth shall we ever hold corporations accountable for their sins?

Is it OK to subject immigrants to these conditions simply because they are seeking escape from the poverty their country perpetuates? Is this ethical? Is it fair that some should die working in pesticides for less than a living wage? We as Americans have allowed corporations to exploit labor forces. We have put up with their threats to move elsewhere and also to raise their costs. They forget that we can grow our own vegetables (I do) and we don’t have to subscribe to their provisions if we don’t agree with them. We have however failed to get that across.

Poor environmental practices, poor labor ethics and outsourcing of jobs are the results of our inaction. The problems and concerns we have in America are the same the French confronted Chirac with and the same the British confronted Blair with. Immigration, the open boarder policy, outsourcing, and lack of living wage jobs are all the conversations I witnessed and I watched as Chirac minimalized his people’s concerns by tagging them as fears. The Globalization Movement has “redistributed” our dreams and is now in the process of doing the same with our nightmares all in the name of healthy competition.

But why do some have to fail that one may succeed; why do some have to fall that one may rise; and why does one person who earned his wage have to retire early only to be hired back as an independent contractor to teach 4 others who will earn a little more than minimum wage to do the same job he once did?

I know what I am suggesting isn’t politically correct but sometimes I wish we could just close all boarders for a year or so and hang out signs that declare: This country is temporarily closed for repairs.

Seriously, corporations, the price index, and the federal reserve are up to no damn good. How can we gain back our ethical practices and set honorable life sustaining examples for the other countries? How can we make this happen?

Sincerely,

Rochelle (Chelle) Stockman