It Takes A Lot Of Punishment To

...so They Are Trying To Do Something About It. They Are Not Doing It By Seeking Charity. They Are Not Begging At The Welfare Office. They Are Not, Like Many Of Their Employers, Lobbying The Halls Of Congress With Their Gold Plated Tin Cups Asking To Be Paid For Not Growing Crops. They Are Trying To Do It In The Way That Millions Of Other Americans Have Shown Is The Right Way-organization, Unionism, Collective Bargaining.

I Remember With Strong Feelings The Families Who Joined Our Movement And Paid Dues Long Before There Was Any Hope Of Winning Contracts. Sometimes, Fathers And Mothers Would Take Money Out Of Their Meager Food Budgets Just Because They Believed That Farm Workers Could And Must Build Their Own Union. I Remember Thinking Then That With Spirit Like That... We Had To Win. No Force On Earth Could Stop Us.

We Don't Know How God Chooses Martyrs. We Do Know That They Give Us The Most Precious Gift They Possess - Their Very Lives.

We Draw Our Strength From The Very Despair In Which We Have Been Forced To Live. We Shall Endure.

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 Life Do We Find Life, That The Truest Act Courage, The Strongest Act Of Manliness Is To Sacrifice Ourselves For Others In A Totally Non-violent Struggle For Justice. To Be A Man Is To Suffer For Others, God Help Us To Be Men.