The Editor:
On Sunday, August 5, an historic Farmworker March for Dignity took place along the rural farm roads from Lynden to Sumas. Participants walked 15 miles over 10 hours, and had plenty of time to reflect on the long, hot, exhausting days endured by farmworkers day after day in order to bring food to our tables.
The hundreds of participants chose to spend their Sunday to march all day in the heat in solidarity with some of the hardest working and lowest paid workers in our country.
How ironic, then, that there were some members of our local community who chose to use their voice to castigate the marchers by yelling “get a job!” from the air conditioned cabs of their shiny new black pickup trucks (probably not on their own way to work, on a Sunday).
I wonder if they thought to yell the same slur to the crowd recreating at the go-kart race track that we passed along the way. What irony for people who live in a farming community to yell “get a job” to a crowd of hard-working farmworkers and their allies.
Thank you to all of the people who honked and waved and walked out of their front door to join us in solidarity. I want to challenge the handful of rude passersby to consider what they do on their own days off to help farmworkers feel appreciated, welcome, and safe here in Whatcom County.
Krista Rome
Bellingham
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