Recently I was in a group meeting with some people in our community. We were talking about illegal immigration. One lady said that they had gone down to the apple orchards in the N. Bay area. She saw apples all over the ground. The owner appeared to be in the orchard and she asked why the apples were on the ground. The usual excuse I can't get workers to pick we need more foreign workers. When she asked, "why don't you hire some students to come in during their summer off to help you?" I can't afford to take the risk if someone gets hurt and they sue me" Code for: If I hire illegals, I pay them less and if they're hurt, I take them to emergency and the taxpayer pays for it.

Well, today I was at a farmers market. The cutest little boy comes up and asks if I would like to taste their apples. I said, "sure." They were really good. So I teased him as asked, "Did you pick these apples?" Cute little nod up and down. Then mom behind her table said, "well its him and mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and sisters and brothers."

So I said, "this is a family orchard and you do all the work?" Yes was the answer. I told her that I would not be attending the Gravenstein Apple Fair any longer because of the above conversation. She totally agreed with me. She said that even the magazine to promote the fair did not feature older generations of orchard owners who were ethical but the big business owners. I bought apples. I gave her some of my business cards for our local group to fight illegal immigration. She said, "I have a lot of people I can give these too." I promptly reached for more cards, jotted down NumbersUSA and Alipac.us. I said the website has the links to these two very important groups. I told her of specific problems and told her if we don't do something this young man won't have a future. Her jaw dropped when I gave her some specific examples of what is happening out there.
She was astounded.

In the end, I came back, bought more apples for friends, asked if she had a website and found it was their first year in business. I gave her information on how to get free business cards and set up a very inexpensive website. She was grateful and interested. Sooooo I hope we have even more newbies from the N Bay area of CA. There are more conservatives and people angry about illegal immigration than you would think here in CA.

Keep talking to individuals. You never know how the contact can network the information out to friends, family, and neighbors.