Cesar Chavez, who died 4/23/1993, wrote a new chapter in the history of American labor by organizing the first successful union of farm workers (the UFW). He transformed a local labor struggle into a moral cause that aroused the conscience of the nation.
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UFW marches had a religious character, reinforced by prayer, banners of Guadalupe, and the predence of clergy and religious. Dorothy Day, an early supporter, was arrested on a UFW picket line at 75. Chavez ended a 25- day fast by sharing communion with Bobby Kennedy.
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“When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life.”
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Chavez and the UFW were the first real lessons about the Gospel's preferential option for the poor and social justice we had in high school. It challenged and invited us to use critical thinking to find ways each one of us could make a difference, individually and collectively.
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Our response to Chavez and the UFW was life changing. It invited Gospel thinking into our lives and a very different understand of who exactly our neighbours were and that everyone mattered. A generation was changed by Chavez and our job is to pass those life lessons on.
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Cesar Chavez was 100% Pro-Life. Todays UFW marches with Planned Parenthood. UFW is no longer Cesar Chavez' union. The values that Chavez held are opposite of today's UFW.
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I appreciate this memorial about my father by @ggrenwald above any I have read today--for his comprehensive review of his bio & history, for his attention to themes generally overlooked about his post-Vietnam life, but particularly for deep appreciation of his human qualities.🙏
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Here's my @RollingStone article on Daniel Ellsberg, the heroic Pentagon Papers leaker who died today at 92:
"We’re Told Never to Meet Our Childhood Heroes. Knowing Daniel Ellsberg Proved That Wrong"
rollingstone.com/politics/polit
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