b AATRICK


 (Continued from page 1)
Primary is almost history, but
there is still one more item that
must be taken care of before it is
finalized. Obama's campaign gets
to vet its designated delegates
from Florida. The campaign has
the right to reject any of the elect-
ed or appointed delegates that are
designated to support him. The
Clinton campaign has already
gone through the process, but the
Obama people refused to comb the
list because until Saturday they
had rejected Florida results.

 Some time ago we took a stand
of personally boycotting Burger
King because of their refusal to
pay an extra penny a pound for
tomatoes to be directly passed on
to tomato pickers to improve their
living standard.
 After a three-year battle, these
poor farm workers won a victory
when Burger King relented and
announced on May 23 that it
would not only pay an extra penny
a pound to help the farm workers,
but it would add an extra half
penny to cover additional payroll
taxes and administrative costs for
tomato growers.
 Now we can return to Burg-
er King for a Whopper or
Croissan'Wich, except that our
social boycott has now turned into
a dietary one. We are on a strict
diet that puts all fast food on the
DO NOT EAT list.
 During the three years of Burg-
er King's refusal, it hired private
investigators to research the
backgrounds of farm worker labor
leaders and mounted a covert pub-
lic relations campaign to falsely
portray the farm workers' living
conditions as far better than real-
ity and to inflame public opinion
against these hardworking but
poor people.
 At the end of the fight we won-
der what all the resistance was
about. According to Burger King,
the cost of this increase will be
$250,000 $300,000 a year for the
$2 billion corporation. The benefit
far outweighs the cost, a penny a
pound increase means a.picker
will receive 77 cents a bucket in-
stead of the current 45 cents.
 The farm workers' struggle isn't
over. The extra penny a pound
paid by Burger King, Taco Bell,
McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC and
Long John Silver's makes it to
the workers, but the accounting is
difficult without grower coopera-
tion. The Florida Tomato Growers
Exchange, which represents most
of the state's growers, is diametri-
cally opposed to the extra pay and
has requested its members not
participate in passing on the extra
paid. The Exchange even threat-
ened to fine members $100,000
if they paid their workers more.
The unreasonable and vehement
opposition is so strong that to us it
transcends business and borders
on racism or classism. The grow-
ers excuse for not offering higher
wages was they felt they could not
pass on the cost to the purchaser
so the farm workers went directly
to the buyer and got their commit-
ment to pay the extra cost.
 With this hurdle overcome, the
growers still resisted, the new ex-
cuse was that the extra pay would
cost them additional payroll taxes
and administrative costs. Well,
Burger King has addressed that
issue with the extra half penny


to be used by the growers. Yet,
the opposition still remains. The
Florida Growers Exchange has
run out of excuses. Their refusal
keeps these workers in squalid
conditions, living day-by-day,
with little hope and few options.
Maybe this is what the growers
want, a workforce imprisoned to
by poverty and a lack of educa-
tion, call it indentured servitude
or slavery. The Florida Tomato
Growers Exchange needs to do
some soul searching and learn to
support its workforce.

 Superdelegate and former chair
of the Hillsborough County Demo-
cratic Party Janee Murphy has
been appointed to serve on the
Children's Board. We are im-
pressed that she was appointed by
the Republican-dominated County
Commission.

 The Downtown Rotary Club
will learn about America's Cuba
policy on June 10 when Al Fox,
the director for the Alliance for
Responsible Cuba Policy Founda-
tion, speaks to the group about the
controversial subject.

 Joe Pando will travel to Spain
to receive the award Ambassador
of La Asturiana on June 17 for
his efforts to promote the Asturias
culture through the Tampa-Ovie-
do Sister Cities relationship. The
award is presented by the Associa-
tion of Asturias Hotels.

 I am very humbled that Los Ca-
balleros del Centro Asturiano de
Tampa will present me with their
Jinete de Honor Award. The honor
is for the promotion of the Latin
culture and helping the Centro As-
turiano, responsibilities I learned
from my father and grandfather.
The event will be on Saturday,
June 21 from 6 8:30 p.m. in the
Centro Asturiano ballroom. Tapas
and sangria will be served and a
cash bar will be available. Cost is
$30. Please RSVP by calling 299-
2214 by Saturday, June 14.

 We hear a rumor that the
Tampa Tribune will outsource its
art department to India to save
money on salaries and benefits.

 The Republican Party of Florida
 (RPOF) will have the grand open-
 ing of its Tampa Victory Office
 today, Friday, June 6 at noon.
 The office will support the party's
 grassroots efforts to help Repub-
 licans win in 2008 and is located
 at 142 W. Platt Street.
 RPOF Chairman Jim Greer will
be there for the event and will sit
down with volunteers and GOP
supporters for a free lunch.
 Other grand opening activi-
ties will be an illegal immigrant
dunking tank, a homeland secu-
rity piata with the constitution
printed on its surface, a non-bio-
degradable hot air balloon release,
water boarding demonstrations
and a phone bank to listen to ran-
dom wire taps of Muslims. We are
just kidding about the activities,
but there will be a raffle and free
bumper stickers.

 A Quinnipiac poll shows that
the Florida Marriage Protection
Amendment is supported by
58 percent of likely voters. The
threshold to pass the amendment


hted Material


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Available from Commercial News Providers"

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"What kind of delegate are you ... regular, super, or half?"


that would add language to the
Florida constitution limiting mar-
riage to be between a man and a
woman is 60 percent. We believe
it's very likely that the amend-
ment will be passed and that high
voter turnout with certain groups
could help. The African American
community is likely to come out in-
record numbers and we see strong
support for the amendment in that
community as well as Hispanics.
The only hope for defeat of the
amendment is if 20-somethings
show up at the polls.

 We disagree with Marion Lam-
bert and the Sons of Confeder-
ate Veterans for erecting a huge
Confederate Flag along one of our
busiest interstates. Mr. Lambert
was quoted as saying that this
country has a couple of flags and
that the Confederate Flag repre-
sents American liberty. Well, we
must correct Mr. Lambert. Ameri-
ca has only one flag, the stars and
stripes, not the stars and bars.
That was what the Civil War was
about, to keep America whole,
one union. The Confederate Flag
at best represents an antebellum
South, one of peaceful plantations
and pastoral scenes. This is a ro-
manticized image, one that never
existed because of the brutality
of slavery. The Confederate Flag
represents this brutality to many
and the ignorance that one race is
superior to another.
 Lambert would do us all a favor
by changing his mind and sending
the flag back to China where it
was made, but we will defend his
right to fly the offensive symbol
over his own property. This is
America after all.
 Oh, by the way. This flag would
have never been erected if the
County Commission didn't change
an ordinance a few years ago. The
change excluded flags from the
sign ordinance. A fit of patriotism
without rational thinking allowed
gint American flags to be flown
without regard to size, height or
appropriateness, leading to this
current problem.

 Joe Capitano, Jr. will be named
chairman of the Ybor City Cham-
ber of Commerce at its annual
installation luncheon on Tuesday,
June 10 at 11:45 a.m. at the Co-
lumbia Restaurant. Cost is $24 at
the door. Call 248-3712, ext. 22 for
more information.

 The Italian Club presents its
First Friday Celebration on Fri-
day, June 6 from 6 p.m. to mid-
night. DJ Juice will play hits from


the 70s through today, as well as
R&B and Latin music. A cash bar
will be available. Admission is $20
and will include a buffet.

 The Thirteenth Circuit Judicial
Nominating Committee is tak-
ing applications for a vacancy in
the County Court due to the ap-
pointment of Thomas P. Barber
to the Circuit Court. Interested
individuals should call Roxanne
at 225-1988. Deadline for applica-
tions is June 19.

 Dr. Ferdie Pacheco and his love-
ly wife, Luisita Sevilla Pacheco,
have teamed up with a noted
Miami restaurateur, to produce a
wonderful Italian cookbook, "Nino
Pernetti's Caffe Abbracci Cook-
book." This is Pacheco's third cook-
book collaboration. The first two
had an Ybor focus, "The Christ-
mas Eve Cookbook: With Tales of
Noche Buena and Chanukah" and
"The Columbia Restaurant Span-
ish Cookbook." The latter has sold
over 65,000 copies.
 The book's focus is on the reci-
pes of Nino Pernetti's northern
Italian cuisine and his life manag-
ing restaurants in 25 countries on
five continents. The cookbook is
available in local bookstores and
on Amazon.com.

 It's day 81 of Fox News talking
about how horrible it is for Barack
Obama to have enjoyed a friend-
ship with Reverend Wright. Night
after night, Sean Hannity and a
host of other Fox talking heads
work to convince Americans that a
man who associates with someone
with controversial views doesn't
deserve to be president. Is this
the only ammunition that Repub-
licans/Fox has against a man who
campaigns on change and hope? If
you can't attack Obama directly
you instead accuse him of guilt
by association. We are growing
tired of the chanting of the GOP
cheerleaders.
 If associations and friendships
are the only way to judge a politi-
cian, then please explain why the
Fox stars haven't spent day after
day attacking the Bushes for re-
lationships with criminals, inter-
national terrorists, homophobes
and racists? You show me almost
any successful political figure and
I'll show you that they have a long
list of questionable friends. It's
true that politics makes strange
bedfellows.

 This week's Silhouette is on
local comedic legend Jack Espi-
nosa.


Page 12/LA GACETA/Friday, June 6,2008


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