Working For The Weekend

Today, instead of doing my normal every-day thing of sitting around doing nothing, I decided to go with my Nanny and her Sunday School group on a field trip. I know. The thing is though, I adore old people. Just love them. They know so much about everything. I mean, they don't know how to text or how to work the Internet mostly but they can tell you the exact feelings they felt when they heard that JFK was assassinated. Or the joy of the first time they travelled alone, and the feel of the air in Israel. That's the kind of stuff that people just take for granted, you know. In school teachers always say "You might have grandparents old enough to remember" this or that and the fact is we do. We just don't take the time to ask. Any textbook can tell you what happened at any point and time in history, but sooner or later there won't be anyone around to tell us how it felt.

Anyway, back to the field trip. We went to this place called Vidalia, GA, famous for the Vidalia Sweet Onions. The whole point was to see this farm and how they grew and processed and sold onions. Whatever. I mean, it's mildly interesting but not really. What is really interesting to me is the people who work there.

First of all they are all foreign immigrants from Mexico. The family that owns the particular farm we toured is part of a national program that I forgot the name of. In the program, the family or farm that is hiring these people actually pays for their visas (something you need to immigrate, duh) to come to America. Now, these visas actually expire after the summer is over because that's when the harvesting is done. Anyway, the visas are paid for and the workers are picked up by buses and brought to the farm they are to work on. They're given dormitories that are actually on the farm, that are fully stocked with food and clothes and TV and all that jazz. They wake up in the morning and they work all day, pretty much six days a week. They get paid minimum wage, which is $7.25 at the moment. They are free to do whatever they want on their day off AND THEY DO PAY TAXES. They don't pay Social Security obviously, because they aren't eligible to receive Social Security. But once again, let me just say, they do in fact pay taxes.

Another thing you may not know is that farms that are part of this federal plan have to actually hire absolutely anyone who shows up to the farm and asks for a job. And that is fact, my friends. Anyone. The owner of the farm told me that if I showed up that day, having been a convicted murderer who was out on bail, she would have to hire me. No lie. Obviously, there's like a two day grace period where I have to prove that I can do the job but other than that, it's that simple. Just so you know, while I was there, I saw absolutely no full American citizens working that weren't a part of the immediate family. Obviously, these people are stealing "American jobs", right? Yeah. I'll tell you something, the whole time we were there these people were working non stop in the heat, no complaints, no breaks unless it was for a sip of water. Just the hardest working people, ever. The owner sang their praises about how they work so consistently and are so hardworking and dedicated. I mean, maybe if "Americans" had some good ole fashioned "American work ethic" we could get some crap accomplished. I mean really. And they were just the nicest people. Didn't speak a lick of English but they were so nice and happy to have such a wonderful atmosphere.

I think it is a real testament to the Mexican people as a whole that they want so desperately to improve their conditions that they will go so far as to move to another country for an entire summer (sometimes longer, because they can relocate to farms that grow crops that are harvested at different times) and do work that, let's face it, most Americans would cringe at for minimum wage and be perfectly content with that. It's inspirational is what it is. Americans should take a page out of their book if you ask me.

("Working for the Weekend" by Lover Boy)