Obama on Chavez: A 'spirit of possibility'

[Omaha Steve]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/03/obama-on-chavez-a-spirit-of-possibility/1

Mar 31, 2010


Dolores Huerta (C), co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), speaks alongside Arturo Rodriguez (2nd L), president of the United Farm Workers (UFW), and sons of civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, Fernando Chavez (L), and Paul Chavez (R), outside of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, March 31, 2010, after meeting with US President Barack Obama where he signed a proclamation designating March 31, 2010 as Cesar Chavez Day.


Here's the text of President Obama's proclamation declaring this Cesar Chavez Day.

The co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, who would have turned 83 years old today, inspired Obama's own work as a community organizer -- and coined one of the president's favorite political slogans, as you shall see. Obama met today with members of Chavez's family and the farmers' union, who are pictured.

The proclamation:

The rights and benefits working Americans enjoy today were not easily gained; they had to be won. It took generations of courageous men and women, fighting to secure decent working conditions, organizing to demand fair pay, and sometimes risking their lives. Some, like Cesar Estrada Chavez, made it the cause of their lives. Today, on what would have been his 83rd birthday, we celebrate Cesar's legacy and the progress achieved by all who stood alongside him.

Raised by a family of migrant farm workers, Cesar Chavez spent his youth moving across the American Southwest, working in fields and vineyards, and experiencing firsthand the hardships he would later crusade to abolish. At the time, farm workers were deeply impoverished and frequently exploited, exposed to very hazardous working conditions, and often denied clean drinking water, toilets, and other basic necessities. The union Cesar later founded with Dolores Huerta, the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), still addresses these issues today.

FULL story at link.

[jefferson_dem]

1. Whew... Cesar not Hugo.

In that case, I totally agree. :applause:

[otohara]

2. Freepers Will Think Hugo

and it will go viral...

[Clio the Leo]

3. lol, I thought the same thing...

... I was about to go, "Is HUGO coming to the thing tomorrow!!!!?" :rofl:

[cutlassmama]

8. LOL, me too

:rofl:

[yurbud]

4. Hugo's only sin is pissing off oil companies and banks by trying to keep more oil money in

his country.

All the rest is window dressing.

[provis99]

9. yeah, well the DLC seem to have a lot of supporters here

You know, corporations good, peasants bad, that sort of thing.

[boppers]

10. Corporations okay, Peasants okay, Egomaniacs annoying.

Chavez ran the MVR corporation, and is trying to stage a takeover by the PSUV corporation, with some success.

It's not a DLC thing, it's a "people before polemic" thing, in my case.

[ShortnFiery]

13. Egomaniacs? That's includes ALL leaders within the Three Branches of Our Government.

Yikes! :evilgrin:

[boppers]

14. I don't disagree.

People in government often seem to think they're awfully important.

Kind of sad, really.

Remember this guy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard_Fillmore

[troubledamerican]

16. When polemicists who are democratically elected get a U.S.-supported coup d'etat against them

then OUR democracy is obliged to bear witness and stand up for the Latin democracy no matter who its leader is.

Democracies don't get to pick and choose who the leaders of other democratic nations are.

And tainted democracies like the U.S. have little standing to criticize other tainted democracies until our own house is in order.

[yurbud]

15. actually, they just have a handful of supporters, but they know how to make their numbers

look bigger by starting a lot of threads and jumping in when certain keywords come up.

[Drunken Irishman]

5. I was thinking the same thing...:P

[boppers]

6. Me six.

Great minds and all that.

[SwampG8r]

7. dude edit your title so it is about cesar

i came in here to see who would be puffing up a turd like hugo

know what...leave it
it was a pleasant surprise to read what i wasnt expecting

[sabrina 1]

11. The Venezuelan people have been 'puffing' him up in every

election for the past ten years or so. U.S. presidents should be as popular with their people, as Chavez, Hugo, is with his.

And since they are the only people who matter in the case of H. Chavez, I don't understand why anyone in this country thinks they know better what is good for Venezuela. Pretty condescending to say the least.

As for Cesar, if he was alive today, he would get the same treatment from the same people who never miss an opportunity to spread their propaganda about his namesake. Mostly it is from the right, but we have a few here. He would be slammed here, on this board, for being a leftie radical, not 'pragmatic' enough to know that his behavior is 'embarrassing' and makes 'lefties look bad'.

It's safe to say that Cesar would not be getting any medals from the U.S. government either if he were still alive today. Looking at how unions are viewed by both Democrats and Repubicans in today's America (see what is being done to teachers eg) Cesar Chavez would not be a popular figure at all.

Nice to see him being honored by President Obama. I imagine Cesar Chavez would understand Hugo Chavez and would be among those who appreciate what he has done and what he hopes to do for his country and for S. America.

[Vattel]

12. Cesar Chavez is my number one hero.

OK, MLK is a close second.

[Cha]

17. Cesar Chavez, of course! Cesar lives on

through his hard work and his fight for fair working conditions in the field!

Si se Puede~

Can't even imagine those land owners trying to take advantage like the workers were slaves.



http://www.chavezfoundation.org/_page.php?code=001001000000000