An Opening Prayer
Long ago, Paul of Tarsus famously wrote that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Twenty years ago, farmworkers first gathered in Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic church in Immokalee, to discuss how they would confront violence in the fields. And from there, these women and men brought their analytical skills, their creativity and their courage to bear on what have been seemingly intractable problems in the fields. They stepped out in faith to create a future that had not yet been seen, and in so doing, they ignited the consciences of all of us gathered here and millions more across this nation.
For, the farmworkers, who harvest tomatoes at the bottom of this industry, began talking with consumers who purchase tomatoes at the top of this industry. And from this conversation grew an unswerving commitment among students and among people and institutions of faith and the sustainable food community, that together with the CIW, we would create a new food system that would truly ensure the human rights of farmworkers and that would assure consumers that the food we put on our table would not come at the great expense of our fellow human beings.
This day we stand outside Publix headquarters and begin our Fast for Fair Food. We begin this fast not only in faith, but also in hope. Because we have seen with our own eyes and touched with our own hands the dignity and rights the Fair Food Program is now ensuring for farmworkers. We begin this fast not only in faith, but also in hope; because we have seen not one, not two, not three… not nine, but ten corporations join in this collaborative endeavor. We begin this fast not only in faith, but also in hope; because we know the end of this story. We know how this will finish. We know that one day the leaders of Publix will no longer be able to deny what their consciences know to be true. And those leaders who gather now, walled up behind perimeters and police, will become our partners in writing a new and storied history of human rights and human dignity in the Fields of Florida.
And so we light this candle of hope, as we begin this fast. We light this candle of hope that perhaps even today, Publix will relent from its position of isolation and extend a hand of consolation. We light this candle of hope, for perhaps even today there is an executive who is unsure and is starting to think that perhaps, just perhaps sitting down face to face with farmworkers might be possible. We light this candle of hope, for perhaps even today Mr. Crenshaw will sense the urgency that Jon Esformes of Pacific Tomato sensed when he said “The transgressions that took place are totally unacceptable today and they were totally unacceptable yesterday.” We light this candle of hope for perhaps even this day, Mr. Crenshaw will wake up, as Mr. Esformes did, and say “I realize that maybe this is something we could have done yesterday, but I am certainly not going to wait until tomorrow.”
So we light this candle of hope, confident, and joyful because we know justice is coming. We know fairness is coming. We know dignity is coming.
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