Marching
toward justice
Farmworkers
and advocates are taking to the streets to bring attention to the continuing
struggle for farmworker rights. On Monday, two groups left Seneca Falls and
Harlem to march to Albany, a total distance of 330 miles. The march, “330 Miles
Toward Justice” began with a vigil at St. Luke’s Church in Brockport. “This
vigil,” said Bill Abom of Rural and Migrant Ministries, “is a chance for people
to stand together with those marching to Albany in the quest for equal rights
for farmworkers.”
           Advocates want legislation passed in
New York that would give farmworkers a weekly day of rest, overtime pay, and
the right to collective bargaining. Bills have passed in the Assembly but
failed to even come to a vote in the Senate. “Everyone knows that if (Senate
Majority Leader) Joe Bruno wanted to pass the bill, it would [pass],” said
Aspacio Alcantara of the CITA, the Independent Farmworkers Center. Marchers
hope to meet with him in Albany.
           Twenty people have signed up to
march the entire 180 miles from Seneca Falls to Albany, a trip expected to take
10 days. Salvador Solis, a former farmworker and an organizer with CITA, is one
of the people walking the entire way. “We’re not asking for anything extra,” he
said. “We’re asking for justice and equality.”
           The marchers gathered at the altar
of St. Luke’s, where two nuns blessed them with holy water before sending them
on their way. “Easter is an important time of year to do this,” said Sister
Marlena Roeger. “This march is about a re-birth, about something new.”
           Jill McGee, a dairy farmworker who
will drive most of the way because of a knee injury, hopes the march will have
a big impact. “I really think this is the year the bill will pass,” she said.
“I hope that this is the year the oppression of farmworkers ends.”
           The marchers will make several stops
before arriving in Albany on April 30. For a complete itinerary, call Jim
Schmidt (325-3050) or Bill Abom (637-8360, 764-0188).
—
Joseph Sorrentino
Patriot
games in park
If
you don’t like what’s on the air, you can press the off button, right? That’s
not so easy, though, when you’re dealing with Clear Channel Communications Inc.
           First, the San Antonio-based parent
corporation is ubiquitous (1,225 radio stations and 37 TV stations nationwide;
seven radio stations plus WOKR-TV Channel 13 in Rochester). Second, the company
has found a new and less-avoidable way to broadcast in the “public square.”
           As the Chicago Tribune reported last month, Clear Channel has been
sponsoring patriotic rallies across the country, including large ones in
Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. With its journalistic eyebrows raised, the Trib got a juicy quote from an
ex-Washington insider: “I think this is pretty extraordinary,” said former
Federal Communications Commissioner Glen Robinson, who teaches law at the
University of Virginia. “I can’t say that this violates any of a broadcaster’s
obligations, but it sounds like borderline manufacturing of the news.”
           On April 16, Clear Channel’s WHAM
1180 sponsored a “support the troops” rally in the Highland Bowl on South
Avenue. Besides some radio personalities, County Executive Jack Doyle and
Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson showed up to speak. Vietnam War veteran Gary
Beikirch’s remarks made the TV news.
           The WHAM website ran a story on the
news of its own making. Who says Rochester’s “manufacturing” sector is dead?
Ubiquitous
Smith
There
we were, minding our own business April 17, when WXXI’s Michael Caputo, hosting
Channel 21’s Need to Know, goes and drops a big one. It seems former White
House speechwriter and Caledonia native Curt Smith will soon be on the 1370 AM
Sunday morning line-up.
           On his own
website, Smith says he’ll “begin hosting Perspectives each week… in early May. The series will be distributed to other NPR stations
in New York State. It will feature well-known local and national guests —
indeed, arguably the greatest galaxy of marquee names of any mid-size market in
America.”
           Could this modesty mean a cameo by
George H.W. Bush, for whom Smith proudly wrote a “Just War” speech? Or by
Margaret Thatcher, who’s on the record as admiring Smith’s work, and who ran
her own splendid little naval campaign against the upstart Argentineans?
There’s no telling. But by floating this new show, WXXI certainly will be
tilting a little more to starboard.
EPA
to Diaz: Drop emission levels
The
federal Environmental Protection Agency has put Diaz Chemical Corporation on notice: The company, says an April 16
EPA news release, must “take specific actions to correct deficiencies in the
way that it operates its facility in Holley, New York.” The EPA notes this
action from the company’s “failure to meet a provision of the Clean Air Act.”
           In January 2002, the Diaz plant
suffered an explosion that caused a cloud of airborne chemicals (including
toluene and chlorofluorophenol) to hit a nearby residential neighborhood. The
neighbors, some of whom are still unable to return to their homes, have been
pursuing legal action.
           Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has
weighed in. On April 18, she wrote EPA head Christine Todd Whitman that “more
needs to be done to safeguard the health of the Holley community.” She asked
Whitman to widen the search for contaminants in Holley and “expand the types of
chemicals for which testing will be done.” A Diaz spokesperson could not be
reached for comment.
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2003.
