This week, I was honored to stand before the Dallas City Council with representatives from the sanitation workers union and ACORN. I had the opportunity to speak for the more than 500 workers who collect the trash in Dallas but who are paid only minimum wage. I reminded the council that this month marked the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and that he died fighting for a living wage for sanitation workers in Memphis.

It was deeply moving to be able to represent you in a cause of justice. Probably not a single person reading this, and certainly none of our members or donors, makes their living collecting garbage. That fact makes me proud to be a part of an organization that stands up, and speaks out, for justice, even when we are not the direct beneficiary. Ultimately, we all benefit when we live in a world that is more fair and just.

Below, you can read my two-minute speech. Perhaps you can forward it to others who might join this fight. It also would be great if you would go to the Dallas City Council website and email or call them to support a living wage for sanitation workers. I know you may not live in Dallas, but you can still lend your voice; after all, if justice can advance in Dallas, progress anywhere is possible.

(Special thanks to H4PJ Director of Programming Lynn Walters who worked so hard on this issue, and to Ferrell Drum, a member of the H4PJ Board, who took off from work to come and be supportive.)

Your honor Mayor Leppert, and honorable council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about an issue that is of concern to me. I am here as the President of Hope for Peace & Justice and as Dean of the Cathedral of Hope. I am also here with the support of the local Service Employees International Union.

It has been a number of years since I have risen to speak in this chamber. In decades past, I have been here to advocate for equality for the lesbian and gay citizens of Dallas, for persons in Dallas who are living with AIDS, and for the various minorities who make up the majority of this great city.

Today, I have come to remind us of some history and to call us to live up to our promises. A generation now has passed; 40 years ago this month, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee where he was martyred for his fight for equality and justice for all. I come here today to remind you that, while we all love and admire Dr. King, it is hypocrisy to continue to say good things about him and his work without paying any attention to why he died.

He wasn’t in Memphis to work to limit taxes for the middle class, or to argue for more parks and fewer pot holes. No, he was in Memphis to stand with sanitation workers. In that city, African-American sanitation workers were not paid if they were sent home because of the weather. White workers were. Unlike their white counterparts, they did not get healthcare, and they were only paid minimum wage.

Dr. King had been warned against going to Memphis. He could have stayed home. He could have gone to a city where he would have been safe, comfortable and appreciated. Instead, he went to Memphis to fight for sanitation workers who wanted nothing more than to earn a living wage so they could provide homes for their families and, maybe someday, send their children to college. It was in that fight for a living wage for sanitation workers that Dr. King gave his life.

Forty years later, as far as the City of Dallas is concerned, Dr. King died for nothing. Sanitation workers still can’t afford to buy homes for their families. They still can’t send their kids to college. They are still not paid a living wage, but must eke out a life on minimum wage.

I know that not all of us are Christians, but every religion admonishes us to care for the poor. Who in our city are more deserving than the working poor? I come to you today not asking for charity, but remembering the words of Jesus who said, “What you do to the least you do to me.” I come asking for you, the leaders of this city and role models of the values that epitomize Dallas, to endorse the principle that, in 2008, we ought to pay sanitation workers a living wage.

In support of this request, I would like to present a petition signed by nearly 1,000 members of the Cathedral of Hope. We are not asking you to take action today, but we are asking you to let the life and death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King be more than a memory of the distant past. After a generation, we ought to pay those who must collect our excess and refuse a wage on which they can pay their bills and care for their families.

We live in one of the most affluent cities on the planet. It is immoral that the garbage we discard is more valuable than the wages we pay those who take care of it for us. They are humans for whom God cares. Let us be people who care for them too. Those are the values of the leaders of a city that make us all proud. Those are the values of a city of which Dr. King would be proud.

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

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