Those who endure
Dear Editor,
They arrive at dawn on the backs of pick-up trucks, grab their buckets, their lunch and head into the fields. It will be a long back-breaking day because these are the migrant workers of Florida who will spend 12-14 hours doing work none of us want to do. The work often includes using dangerous machinery, harmful pesticides, and frequent unbearable weather conditions. These workers have no benefits since they are Illegals — they are simply cheap labor. Often, their small children are with them and their only playgrounds are the dusty dry, sometimes muddy fields where their parents pick, pick, pick.
However, what they make here is still more than they can possibly make at home, so they endure. They endure because they have hope — hope that their children might get an education and some day be able to find better jobs, yet knowing that for their generation life will never change. Meanwhile, they rely on families and other workers to make up the nucleus of their daily lives. They attend church together, they celebrate holidays together and they are there for each other because, unlike their countrymen who live and work in the cities, they have little outside contact or stimulation
It’s not easy for anyone to be poor, and it’s especially not easy when you are an outsider. It’s not easy uprooting your life as the seasons change, perhaps going from one state to another, one field to another. But they adapt. These are people who always adapt because they have no choice. We berate them for not learning English, but these migrants have no time for unproductive activities such as that. We castigate those who are Illegals, and that is understandable from our point of view, but who else will be out there picking all those crops from dawn to dusk if not them? It’s also easy to condemn the companies that hire them, but is it better to let good food rot in the fields? Is it better to let growers go out of business for want of picking? Things are not always as simple as they seem — there is no black and white here. There needs to be an answer [that] everyone can live with, but unfortunately that may never be possible.
The next time you drive along and see migrants in the field, remember that we eat well because they work hard. We sleep well because we know that in the morning we shall see the fruits of their labor in our markets. And know that they enrich our lives daily by their toil.
Patt Sulzberger
Sun City Center
Dear Editor,
Sun City Center has a group of people supporting the building of a New Theater costing well over $3 million, plus operational costs. There are many alternative plans that would be more sensible.
We have a beautiful convention center just a few miles away in Wimauma. I spoke to one of the managers, Jim Mace. He said they would love to have the support of our community. They will rent the large theater with seating for 4,000 people for $3,000 per show. They have a smaller theater seating 400, which could be used as a dinner theater, seating 320 for $600. Per show.
The cost of the interest alone and upkeep of building a new theater would be an unnecessary burden and expense to our residents, including elderly and disabled Sun City Center residents who are unable to attend.
If the group that wants the theater sold 4,000 tickets at $20 each per show, they would profit $5,000 per show less the cost of [the production]. If they used the small Wimauma theater and sold tickets at $10 each, profit would be $3,400 less [production] costs.
It is easy to create debt, a lot harder to get out of it. Buses or shuttles could easily be arranged for transportation.
Joe Vladyka
Sun City Center