Serious Problem, with jokes.

Stephen Colbert is a brave man, and I am taking a public stance that I support and respect him. You would think that someone who had been politically flogged for his performance at the White House Press dinner several years ago would stay as far away from Washington as possible, but today he testified before Congress. I admit that he showed up in character, and made his usual jokes, but what so many people in Congress, and in the press, seemed to miss was that he made some really good points and had every right to be there. You don't invite a clown to your party and then get irritated when they show up in their make-up, and you don't extend an invitation to Stephen Colbert to report on a story he did for his show and then get mad when he shows up as the host of his show. If the people that are criticizing him would take a step back for a second, here are the things they would see behind the humor....

1) Stephen didn't show up unprepared. He was there by invitation because he did something only 16 other people in this country have been willing to do. He accepted the challenge and offer extended by the Farm Workers association to "Take our Jobs, Please" and he worked alongside migrant farm workers for a day to see what that life is really like. Before working he met with the head of the House Committee and heard what she had to say on the subject. He was invited to the program personally by the head of the Farm Workers Association and spent time on his show asking about issues and getting personally involved. He also has spoken on the subject in more places than just today's hearing, and in all the other locations was treated with respect.

2) He's not wrong. The points that he made during his speech were accurate and his answers to questions were respectful but personal. He admitted when he didn't know something but mostly he stuck to his position that there is a problem and something has to be done. The work that migrant farms workers do, whether they are authorized or undocumented residents, are doing jobs that almost all Americans will not do. The initiative to offer migrant positions has been ignored, and until Colbert accepted the invitation to experience that back-breaking labor, only 3 people nationwide had answered the call, and even since only 16 have been willing to see what that daily life is like. Research has shown that when given a choice between migrant farm work and no work at all, the VAST majority of people will choose no income - and Stephen pointed out that it isn't even really an immigration issue as much as it is a basic human rights issue. He came out in support of better immigration enforcement because when people aren't working to make sure they aren't caught for being in the country, then they also don't have to be afraid to speak out about injustices and exploitation.

3) Stephen knows he is being used, and he is willing. There was no denial that he was there because it meant the media would be there too. Without his testimony, there would have been no coverage of this hearing, no conversation about this real problem, and no progress for the rights and safety of the workers at the very base of our economy. Unless you go looking for information, you don't hear about the: abuse of migrant workers, the high number of corrupt and dishonest employers of people who have no voice to defend themselves, and the real threat to EVERYONE's livelihood if we were to lose the people who are actually willing to do the jobs we won't do in our fields and elsewhere.

4) He was not the dumbest person in the room. That title, as is often the case, goes to my personal embarrassment: Steven King R-IA. Ok, he might not have been the dumbest person in the room, I wasn't there to take a full inventory, but I have a strong feeling I'm not wrong. As usual, I had to listen to this Iowa Disappointment in short segments because I kept getting too mad. It is unfair for King to question the experiences of Colbert on the basis that he is from a farming state when he has likely never spent a day in the fields do that kind of work. But more importantly, I know his home district and he is flat out wrong that Americans will do that work and Iowa is proof, DEAD WRONG. For years I lived in a community right down the road from Mr. Ignorant, and there are some places I would like to take him on tours of: the dairy farm where I taught a family English and heard tales of exploitation and injustice, the packing plants where safety doesn't have to be worried about because they hire people who are too afraid to say anything, and chicken houses that have as many English-speaking workers as they do English proficient chickens. The truth is that our fields can be harvested with machines so King doesn't see the same migration of workers that sacrifice their bodies and rights for a minimal income, but it doesn't mean that it isn't a problem in my beloved state.

5) If Colbert didn't know what he was talking about, his testimony would not have been in collaboration with 2 of the other witnesses. The people who sat beside Stephen agreed with him and appreciated his presence. There was not one challenge from that table, so why the Representative couldn't see past the humor to the sincerity of his message is a mystery to me.

My personal testimony: Every time we walk through the produce aisle, it is on the backs of foreign born workers. We have made them a silent and ignored lifeblood of our food system, and that makes me sad. Immigration is a problem, but so is exploiting people who are too afraid to ask to be treated fairly. There are some wonderful Farmers out there who treat their workers fairly and honestly, and know they have employees who are doing work he can't get from the average American - but sadly that isn't the norm. I admit that I love paying $2.97 for a watermelon and $0.50 a pound for grapes, but I would rather know that all the healthy foods we rely on weren't brought to me on the wings of injustice. I'm with you Stephen!