APOLOGY

Hey Lloyd,

Honest and popular don't go hand in hand...but any publicity is good publicity. You have brought this issue to the fore much more convincingly in this manner, albeit possibly unwittingly.

Thanks for everything you do Lloyd, this is incredible. I know a little about being demonized (and falsely charged), but you beat me hands down. Good job.

Remember we back you 100%, unconditionally. Jenny and I know you Lloyd, and we know this is a "politics of usual" effort to avoid the real issues by demonizing you.

There's gonna be some pain I think, before we can emerge a stronger better people.

Mark

This is just a remark made out of frustration. The condition of our Valley is worsening. Farmworkers are exploited by corporate farming. Exploited people down through history have always produced a faction that in one way or another negatively impacts the whole of society. This is nothing new.
As you can see from reading these comments, people of color who know Lloyd are standing up for him. Those of you who act offended by these remarks are merely revealing your low levels of consciousness and awareness. Your short-sightedness identifies you as another part of the problem. Lloyd has always worked to be part of the solution.
To be inclined to being easily offended reveals you as being dense and infantile. Not only that, by engaging in this way you join the corporate fat cats in perpetuating the problem. Grow up and wake up. The plight of the farmworkers is high on the list of Lloyd Carter's concerns. Make it your priority to realize this. Take the time to contemplate the situation long enough to where you can see the big picture.

If Joe Biden can overcome his Gaffes, you can too Lloyd. Hang in there and keep speaking the truth about social and environmental justice.

Why apologize for speaking the truth? Those angry voices that cry racism have nothing else to grab onto. Statistically, he is correct. He spoke what we all already know. I wish more people would speak up, especially polititions who can actually do something about it.

Your apology is lacking as is your vision. Rather than working hand in hand with farmers to create a better valley and state you have intentionally chose to create chaos and harm with your stance. While trying to convince people that farmers are terrible, the truth comes out in simple comments. Frustrated after getting beat up over facts you make those type of comments to a news reporter? Brilliant!!!!

After reading your "about" page I wonder how your grandfather would have liked to have his water taken from him and his vineyard dry up. He and your grandmother could have migrated elsewhere though right? Considering the mindset of most farmers, I would think he was turning over in his grave.

I too am a farmworker with a college degree. Eventually became a farmer. The people I work and socialize with on a regular basis have incredible abilities and are of exceptional character. You on the other hand are a short sighted and narrow minded person that would stop at nothing to try to win an argument. When you dont get your way you spew horrible comments like a child.

You lack a reasonable vision for the future of California. There is that little economic issue today effecting us all. Keep taking the stance you have and the backlash against environmentalism will be set back as far as your career has been set back by your racist comments.

I saw one reply earlier that made the comment, "Where does Mr. Carter buy his food?" That is a good comment because it raises the all important yet often overlooked point. If we do eradicate agriculture in this valley, food importation from other countries will increase even more. I seem to remember not too long ago china being involved in not only lead contaminated toys but chemical tarnished milk that made many sick. I also know that California as well as the United States in general is one of the safest countries in the world. Do you really believe that other countries have the same standards of cleanliness and food safety that we do here? If you do, then I think that you may want to do your homework. Also, without new president, he has introduced something that is called protectionism into this new stimulus bill. It may have been trimmed recently but as far as I know it is still in the bill. This states that all building materials funded by this bill must be bought American. On one hand I like this because it keeps the money in house but the other and more reasonable says it may not such a good idea. The reason is that these countries like China and other Asian countries to state a few are angry now because they rely heavily on export to our market of products like steel, electronics and in some cases food. If they are angry with us about not buying building materials from them what could be next? Could they be so mad that they cut off food imports as well or even worse introduce tainted food to make people sick? This is all what if and I believe to be far reaching but it does make you think about what we are doing here and what it may open us up to in the future if we keep on the path of watering our lawns rather than our food. And, in response to Mr. Carter’s comments, I do believe that they may have snipped his interview to either fit the broadcast or put him a not so positive light but it still remains that he said those things which show his narrow minded point of view on this issue. I believe that his water situation is bad and it is made even worse due to political pressures and while this can be spun to shed light on anyone’s point of view such as they are rich farmers or these are illegal immigrants, it still remains that farming is the blood of this valley and it could become a safety issue if it goes away.

Mr. Carter,

i don't understand why you have to retract what you said. If we live in a free society, where we can express our opinion, you have a right to stand by your statement and not reword or apologize. Other groups do not apologize when they disparage whites, go around moving their flags, carrying signs with their demands to be legalized for crossing illegally.
I know some have come here to work and do not cause any problems, but the fact remains that these folks crossed illegally, without any invitation or document. And then turn around and scream that this land was illegally taken from them, that the whites are the ones here illegally.
We can't forget the implications of these children have in our school system. They require more assistance due to their lack of English, free breakfast and lunches, a Migrant Program, after school programs, medical care, etc. This is the cost of those who are illegal in this country.
Yes, they help the farmers; however, the fault of all this lies in the federal government for not coming up with a clear system of admitting folks who can come here LEGALLY to work.

I see that the farm workers are being exploited again, this time by the water interests who keep them in poverty. They're using a misstatement by an environmentalist to try brand all environmentalists as racist. The pot is once again calling the kettle black. Lloyd is no racist; he was trying to call attention to what the farmers in the south valley are doing with the money they made with the water we paid for.

This is what happens when you don't go to a good university.

You keep the same old racist rhetoric you grew up with. It's so deeply ingrained you don't even know that it is wrong.

Here is a quick rule of thumb, never generalize an entire group of people. There are always exceptions. There are farm workers that have went out and become lawyers and doctors. And if you understand that you won't go out and believe stereotypes.

Character Assassination by Sound Bite
Submitted: Feb 09, 2009
By: Badlands Journal editorial board

There are excellent political reasons for the witch-hunt in the south Valley against Lloyd Carter, arising from a comment taken out of context about farmworkers, for which Carter apologized, once he saw what the media did with it, immediately.

Carter is the premier water journalist of the San Joaquin Valley. He has been on the story since the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge disaster of 1983, when the world, largely due to his efforts, learned what concentrated amounts of heavy metals, particularly selenium, did to wildlife, cattle and people in and near the Merced County refuge. Among the people whose health was destroyed, were farmworkers. Lloyd Carter wrote that story, at great cost to his career as a newspaperman for the craven mainstream media.

Carter has been at the forefront of defining issues of environmental, social and economic justice for all Valley residents, especially farmworkers, for 30 years.

Last week, he made a statement that appeared to slam farmworkers in the congressional district of Jim Costa (Kern and Kings counties). With $971 million in farm subsidies, which does not include water and power subsidies, Costa’s district ranks second for crop subsidies in the state, yet is the poorest congressional district in the nation. He said farmworkers do not want their children to be farmworkers. He said the teenage pregnancy rate is about 30 percent, the high school dropout rate is higher and that there is a lot of gang activity in Costa’s district. He said there were a lot of illegal aliens in the district. Who would deny these facts, particularly from a journalist who has built a reputation for integrity, accuracy and truthfulness over a 30-year career?

Nobody who knows anything about the district denies them in private. The media is constantly providing examples. But, few people connect the dots in private, and even fewer connect them in public.

The unfortunate context of Carter’s events last week consists of three elements: fear, hypocrisy and propaganda.

We are afraid of drought because these irrigation systems are vastly over-committed and always have been. Yet, politicians and “local leaders” babble on as if California never had a drought before. It had a bad one around 1990 and a worse one in the mid-1970s. Everybody knows this, particularly agribusiness, farmworkers and Valley environmentalits. There is also great fear, available to anyone who speaks Spanish in this Valley, for Mexican drug-cartel labor trafficking. But, before the onslaught on border people, the Valley Hispanic leaders had already sold out to every interest they viewed as stronger than themselves – from the traffickers, the contractors, the farmers to the state and federal government. They are cowards, cobardes, and everyone also knows this, and says it (privately).

We cannot tell the truth about agricultural water or farmworkers. We are all ‘people of lie’ on these issues. South Valley farmers and their water districts, led by Westlands, Friant Water Users Authority, Kern County Water District and other special interests, lie hysterically about both water and farmworkers. Their drain water is toxic, their water rights are junior to many upstream (mainly the exchange contractors’ riparian rights) and the majority of the farmworkers are illegal aliens. These truths must be denied. It is an article of faith to deny that the entire system of agriculture south of the Mendota Pool cannot be sustained without essential lies, lies Lloyd Carter built an exemplary journalism career exposing.

Westlands and Friant Water Users Authority, the largest, must politically sensitive and vulnerable to drought of all water districts in the nation, and its few, large-landholding, highly subsidized growers, have become, by necessity, the masters of propaganda on water issues.

Last week, an historic debate took place at CSU Fresno, hosted by the political science department because, as Judge Oliver Wanger, debate moderator, commented, the Fresno State Water Institute thought it was too controversial for them to host. The debate pitted three environmentalists against four representatives of ag water. Carter was the local environmentalist; Tom Birmingham, general manager of Westlands, was the principal representative for Big Water and agribusiness. Judge Wanger provided the legal context for 30 years of federal water cases in his court; Birmingham and Co. argued the case for Big Water; and Carter, flanked by Bill Jennings, founder of Stockton-based Delta Keepers, and Michael Jackson, the preeminent environmental water lawyer in Northern California, presented the case for the environment, wildlife species in danger of extinction due to Delta over-pumping, public health and safety issues, the livelihoods of fishing town on the coast and agriculture beyond the sacred precincts of Westlands, such as towns like Grayson on the San Joaquin River in Stanislaus County, which rely on river water. There was almost no print coverage of that debate. This was an example of the propaganda of omission. Whatever broadcast coverage of it that occurred was, by the magic of water-hysteria propaganda, obliterated by a gross lie: Carter, “the racist.”

This is a natural resources situation in which all eco-justice advocates would like to support agriculture, the basis of our Valley economy, but the propaganda of the hysterical whine of agribusiness becomes more absurd as the years wear on.

Carter isn’t a racist, never has been, never will be. Nor is it an issue of “national security” to exterminate Delta wildlife, fish species and public health and safety for subsidized cotton and pistachios in the Westlands Water District. Jim Costa’s congressional district is not the “bread basket of the world, “ unless you like bread made of cotton, pistachios, lettuce, almonds, cheap, half-built subdivisions, expressways, blueprints, Valley partnerships, oil or any of the other export commodities produced in the south San Joaquin Valley. We don’t do bread there. As Carter put it in the argument that ended the debate at Fresno State, “The grand experiment didn’t work. Retire the badlands of the south Valley.”

Birmingham retorted that Carter’s statement about water rights was “FALSE!” (Birmingham’s rhetoric is worthy of the Roman senate long after Cicero was murdered and the Republic was forgotten and only the rhetoric went on devoid of truth.) Birmingham cited the fact that the Del Puerto Water District, far upstream from Westlands, would also get no water this year from the Bureau of Reclamation. Carter was talking about the exchange contractors in the Central California Irrigation District around Los Banos, whose riparian rights derive from the Miller-Lux Ranch, would still get 75-percent of their allotment, despite the drought because of the seniority of the rights.

Carter won the debate hands down on logic, experience and truth. Everyone in the hall knew it.

We are ‘people of the lie.’ We prefer the false to the true. Carter’s apology was another mistake, an attempt to produce a sound bite to counteract a sound bite, but it was sincere, short and, unlike the Big Water/Big Ag propaganda, it was truthful.

The environmental community of the San Joaquin Valley supports farmworkers, clean, safe, healthy housing and working conditions for them, a livable, access to education, and the right to participation in government.

In California, droughts happen, water is over-committed, urban growth threatens ag water, if Congress doesn’t finally pass the San Joaquin Valley Settlement very shortly, the judge will rule to the detriment of farmers, fish are going extinct in the Delta from over-pumping, the west side of the south San Joaquin Valley is toxic alkali flats that should be fallowed for perpetuity after 40 years of destructive farming, and no place in California has ever treated farmworkers worse than the Valley. We all know this in private. Carter said it in public.

Civilized people don’t lynch a person for telling the truth, as Carter has done for decades at huge expense. The Valley is the cruelest place for farmworkers, natural resources, democracy and the truthful journalism upon which democracy depends. At the Fresno State debate, Carter upheld the modern position; Birmingham of Westlands argued for our degraded feudalism. Meanwhile, the wheels of propaganda rolled on.

You decide what kind of valley you want to live in. Lloyd Carter has done his best for three decades to present the alternative to the same old agrarian oligarchy of the 1930s, when the Farmers Associations took axe handles to striking American workers, and of the violent hysteria about farm-labor organization of the 1950s and 1960s.

When you hear the clatter of chains, it's wise to ask who's jerking them and why. A "national security zone" for agriculture in Kern and Kings counties would be the end of all possibility of labor organization, in case anybody's thinking of trying it again.

It is no mistake that the valley has some of the highest crime rates in all of the United States. Our prisons are full of these people and guess what nationality they are.

I DEMAND THAT KMPH PLAY THE WHOLE INTERVIEW WITH LLOYD CARTER.

I THINK THAT LLOYD HAS BEEN SET UP BY THE WEST LAND WATER FOLKS TO TAKE THE FOCUS OFF WHAT THE REAL PROBLEM IS. NO MORE WATER. WE CAN NOT SIT BACK AND PRETEND THAT OUR MOTHER EARTH WILL PROVIDE FOR US ALL THAT WE NEED. WE ARE OVERPOPULATED AND HEADED IN A DIRECTION I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT. SOON WE WILL BE KILLING EACH OTHER FOR THE LAST BOX OF POTATOES FROM THE SHELF, NOT BECAUSE WE CAN'T GROW POTATOES, BUT BECAUSE WE ARE OUT OF THE RESOURCES WE NEED TO GROW POTATOES.

INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON THE REAL ISSUE OF THE NIGHT: THE DEBATE, OF WHICH WE HEARD NOTHING ABOUT REALLY, THE NEWS FOCUSED ON LLOYD'S COMMENTS AND TOOK THEM OUT OF THEIR CONTEXT.

LLOYD HAS BEEN A WARRIOR, TRYING TO SHOW PEOPLE THE REALITIES AND TRUTHS BEHIND THE PROPAGANDA THEY HEAR EVERYDAY FROM OUR GOVERNOR AND THOSE THAT GOVERN. WE CAN NOT SIT BACK AND LET THIS ONE MAN TAKE THE FALL FOR JUST STATING THE TRUTH.

THIS NATION OF IMMIGRANTS, NEEDS TO REALIZE THAT THE ONLY REASON LLOYD MADE THE COMMENTS WERE TO POINT OUT THE INJUSTICES OF MIGRANT FARMWORKERS.

AND TO REALLY ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ASKED OF LLOYD DURING THE INTERVIEW:
okay 40,000 migrant farm workers out of a job. they are migrant farm workers, they will migrate somewhere else where the jobs are. maybe out of CALIFORNIA to another state to deal with teaching their children and supplementing their income. that could be the answer to all of CALIFORNIA'S problems.

WAS LLOYD OUT OF LINE, MAYBE, BUT HE WAS STATING GENERALIZATIONS, BASED ON FACTS. THE FACTS EXIST: ESTIMATE OF 52% OF FARMWORKERS ARE ILLEGAL (Oxfam America. 2004. Like Machines in the Fields: Workers Without Rights in American Agriculture. Research Paper. http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_re...), THEIR CHILDREN DON'T WANT TO GROW UP TO BE FARM WORKERS, THEY DROP OUT OF SCHOOL, ETC. LOOK AT THE STATISTICS BELOW FROM THE National Agricultural Workers Survey:

""NAWS" further showed young farmworkers' education to be at risk. More than a third were school dropouts, while 17 percent of them went to school at a grade level lower than their age peers. Likewise, farmworkers' children were educationally disadvantaged. One quarter of school-aged children of farmworkers were behind in grade or had dropped out of school. Working in the fields imposed even greater risk to children of farmworkers, with more than a third falling behind their grade level or dropping out of school." GO HERE TO READ SOME OF THE STATS: http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-4/migrant-farmworkers.html

However, certain programs, in particular Food Stamps and Medicaid, were used by significant groups of farm workers. GO HERE TO READ MORE STATS ON WELFARE: http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/agworker/report/ch3.htm.

AND UNFORTUNATELY THERE IS PLENTY MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM. IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT LLOYD'S COMMENTS HAVE BEEN TAKEN SO FAR OUT OF CONTEXT. BY POINTING OUT A SOCIAL INJUSTICE, LLOYD WAS MERELY TRYING TO SHOW THAT IT IS A PROBLEM AND IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED.

AND WHERE DOES THE LATINO COMMUNITY COME OFF BEING OFFENDED. THEY ARE NOT THE ONLY FARM WORKERS. THERE ARE PLENTY OF WHITE, AFRICAN AMERICAN, AND PEOPLE OF ASIAN DECENT WORKING IN THE FIELDS.

SO I REPEAT, KMPH, PLAY THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW INSTEAD OF STIRING UP CONTROVERSY TO SELL NEWS.

THANKS,
FED UP WITH PROPAGANDA IN CALIFORNIA

Do not judge so hastily using information that has been highly misconstrued.

As the area director of the Amreican Indian Movement, I have been involved with Mr. Carter on several issues of social justice for people considered "minorities" in this country. I can, with conviction state; Mr Carter's staements have been completely misinterpreted and taken totally out of context.

Mr. Carter fully understands the injustices faced by those who continue at the mercy of the "policy makers" who use little consideration of human rights as the laws are being written. Not only does he understand, but is dedicated to see the rights of every individual respected and equality is reached. He has spent countless hours investigating numerous issues to grasp their content for the purpose of wellness for the whole of society.

The expressions used by Mr. Cater reflected his frustration with "the system" and their "throw away" mentality. In other words, his description was only that showing the results which many families face due to the intentional lack of willingness by governmental officals and society at large to aid those who are in the struggle to maintain balance.

Before you continue to assuem, know his work, know the man.

Laura L. Wass
American Indian Movement

I am sorry Mr. Carter, and I apologize to you. I realize that you were forced to apologize. Unfortunatly, in Ca you have to apologize for the Truth. Is it illegal to employ illegal aliens? Of course it is. Are the children of farmworkers the least educated? Of course they are. Who else would be less educated? What moron would argue these facts? It would be nice if these liberals could read demographic charts. You even had one inbred liberal want to fight you. When they are wrong, liberals always want to fight on-line but are too cowardly face to face.

The governor went to Washington for more tax money several years ago and said "Ca needed it because we have 15 million illegal aliens". Who do you think pays for them? Why do you think Ca. is broke?? Any guesses? It is so hard to be reasonable with liberals who have the IQ of a peach.

I am a member of the silent majority. Several years ago, we in Ca passed a propositon to ban illegal aliens from out schools and welfare. It passed OVERWHELMINGLY. Of course the liberal judges shot it down.

But there is still a huge majority out here that agrees with you. Ca spends more on welfare that any state. I'm sure that sounds racist to some. How can the truth be racist? Our prisons are bankrupt and in receivership. Fact! What group do you think makes up the majority of inmates?

Ca. is never going to solve it finances until people face the truth.

And George Radanovich, my congressman, you make me sick. You Radanovichs need to grow a set of nads. Cut the pc trash and fix our finances!

Thanks you Mr. Carter and keep up the good work.

Lloyd,

My Dad was one of the early Braceros. He later spent 20 years in the military, serving this country from WWII through the Vietnam War. His four kids all took our turns picking fruit and later became: an analyst for Boeing, an insurance agent, a physician, and a Dean of Undergrad Studies.

For my part, don't think twice about the offensive thing. Taking offense requires an active role by the offendee and your comments really don't affect me.

The more interesting question is "What were you thinking?!" Beyond the issue of bad judgment, your comments reveal a crazy venality that rolls around the recesses of your brain. Knowing this tidbit about your inner self will bring secret smirks to people you deal with for many years to come.

Mr. Carter,

I am appalled but not surprised by your comments.

I was born and raised here in the Central Valley. Upon graduation from a Central Valley high school, I left for an education and career in natural resources. I attended the best natural science schools in California and the Pacific Northwest.

I have worked throughout this nation with land management agencies, regulatory bodies, academia and environmental non profits such as yours. My education and experience is in forestry, terrestrial ecology, and land management. Twenty years later, I continue to remain one of the few people of color in this profession, whether that is Hispanic, African-American, Native American, or Asian.

Contrary to your comments, I choose my profession so I wouldn’t have to work as hard as my migrant lineage.

I am glad I made the trip to the central valley this week. I spent time with family and learned more about my profession thru your interview.

Again, I am not surprised by your comments because you and I work in a profession uninviting to people of color. In your interview, you articulated publicly what I often hear covertly. Comments such as, “…those people don’t want to work out here…”. I ask you, how can a growing demographic develop a conservation ethic if they are overtly excluded?

Take at look at your NGO. Is it reflective of this of this valley, this state or this nation? It is time those who portend to represent the people of this nation in conservation, begin to look like those of this nation.

I am dismayed by your comments and yet it brought clarity.

I wish you the best in achieving balance in conservation and people

gabe

MR. CARTER

AS AN AMERICAN IT IS SAD WHEN YOU HAVE TO SAY SORRY, FOR THE WAY YOU FEEL. AND THE STATEMENT YOU MADE IS TRUE FOR SOME, WHY IS IT WHEN OTHER RACES CAN SAY WHAT THEY WANT AND WE ARE ALL TO STAND AND LISTEN, BUT WHEN THERE RACE IS BROUGHT,UP WE ARE CALLED RACES AND WHAT AN APOLOGY. YES THERE ARE VERY EDUCATED RACES OUT THERE BUT TAKE A TRIP TO THE WELFARE OFFICE , AND SEE WHO IS THE MAJORTY THAT WE ARE FLIPPING THE BILL FOR. WE DON'T HAVE MEXICO LICENSE,WITH AN AMERICAN EXPRESS OR ANOTHER CREDIT CARD WITH IT. IF I HAD IT MY WAY THERE WOULD BE NO IMMMIGRANTS.
DON

Lloyd,

I was floored and saddened by your racist and discriminitory remarks Thursday evening on Channel 26. I was saddened because they were coming from you whom i thought was fighting the good fight for environmental and human justice.

I am proud to say that both my parents were hard working farmworkers. So, if we apply your theories about farmworkers and their children to me, I am not educated, I am a criminal, I am on welfare and I must be dealing in drugs with my gang.

This may be news to you, but I am educated (I have a JD from the same law school where you received yours). I am also proud to say that I have never been arrested, been on welfare, I have taken some presciption drugs but have never had a desire to belong to a gang. And by the way, when it was time for my mother to apply for social security benefits, she resisted because she thought it was welfare..imagine that!!!

Also, please stop referring to human beings as illegal aliens...i would recommend that you refer to them as undocumented workers.

Lloyd you have greatly damaged your reputation and I know that have publicly apologized, but it will take more then that. Your comments are the type that will fuel more racism and discrimination towards farmworkers and other people of color.

Good luck!!!

Manuel Romero SJCL Class 95

Mr. Carter, have you been to the west side of the valley, other than at 70 mph on I-5? What I mean is, have you taken time and talked to anybody who farms, works or lives there? I have listened to you on Pacifica 88.1 radio before. You were just as wrong and offensive about the people who own the farms on the Westside.

You have demonstrated that your fight with the Westland’s Water District has become a personal matter; you have lost your objectivity and taken a win at any cost attitude.

Your colleague Mr. Jackson said that evening, that when you’re in San Francisco or in L.A. you’re preaching to the choir.I believe you simply said what you practice, but in front of the wrong choir.

It is too easy to misstate or inartfully phrase one's remarks, especially when answering a media question at an evert with a different focus. What one "should have said" comes easily to mind later or the next morning: the German "steppentripp." Unfortunately The Media makes use of "gotcha" moments.
Your apolocy was a very gracious, and obviously heartfelt and sincere. I hope your critics can accept it as such.
Your works over the decades makes any apology unneeded, because your comments were obviously inadvertent, unintended, and an unfortunate misstatement about your views of systemic exploitation of workers by some and the foreseeable results of that economic exploitation. Best wishes and thank you for all your work over many years, J.D. McCubbin and Janet Moore[i]

Mr Carter,

I am a small farmer in Westlands Water District for the past twenty four years continuing generations of farmers in our family. Being raised a farm worker set my work ethic and values. The lessons taught in the field are unparalleled. The qualities learned are the foundation of being a good person, friend, employee, student, spouse, citizen, etc.

Farming is frowned upon and mocked by elitists. These are the people who cannot understand the need for farming and will stop at nothing to help their cause. The truly sad part is the devastation they leave behind. It is not just the farmer or farm worker, it is an area that is ruined and eventually the hangover will be felt at the state or national level.

A few years back I had a great talk with an environmentalist that helped me even more to understand the necessity of protecting our land. She left the conversation with a new understanding of the need for farming. In a short amount of time we had both left the conversation with a much better understanding of the others concerns. Her opinions are as valuable to my decision making today as it was a number of years back. I wish more had her common sense and the willingness to see the full picture. Too many are too eager to feed off of the tragedy of others. The disturbing part is that someone is supporting these individuals.

Unlike others, I would hope your apology is accepted as long as it comes from the heart. Perhaps you will take it upon yourself to actually walk a mile in the shoes of those you are so eager to condemn. Just think of a person or organization trying to take your livelihood away from you while characterizing you in an erroneous way. Should not be too difficult for you now should it?

Sam Weis
Farmer and Farm Worker

Mr. Carter,

I have included my name and email address with this messege. I provide this information openly because I hope that after reading this you will contact me and we can get together.

I'm about your age. I worked on farms as a kid and became a farmer by trade. I have spent a larger portion of my life with farm workers than I have with my family or friends because this occupation requires more hours at work than most. Although technically these fine people are employees, I have always viewed them as co-workers. It is not easy work but it is honorable and to many, very satisfying.

I have always felt the obligation to protect and defend my co-workers and have done that consistently even when it required physical action. An example of this would be long ago when the radical elements of Ceasar Chavez's movement would try to rough up the farm workers to intimidate them, I in turn roughed them up.

I am not threatening you because in order for us to hook up it will require your consent. I hope that happens but I don't think it will because you are a chickenshit coward. And a hypocrite and an idiot.

$750 worth of water to grow $150. worth of cotton? Gang members harvesting the food you buy in the store? You are also a fool.

Look me up.

Grant Craven

You have shown your true colors and they are not exceptable in this country. I worked with my father in the fields when I was a young man and was very proud of it. I did not sale drugs or commit crimes I just worked very hard to survive. You have chosen to make a direct attack upon a group of hard working people. This has never been about the environment or a fish to you. It has always been racial. It ends today we will fight for more water and storage. We will win.

Ruben Guerra- California Latino Water Coalition

Mr. Carter,

I am truly disgusted by your comments. As the immediate past president of the SJ/SV NAACP and one who is very involved in the business of water, I have to call for your job. I will do everything in my power with the current structure of the NAACP locally statewide, and nationally to have the NAACP weigh in and remove you from your current position.

Your comments and views are not reflective of what California is, a diverse population of everyone working together to create a environment where all are welcome to the table to generate ideas on how to make this a better place to live.

Please resign now and save your family, you have shamed them your employer and all who you are associated with. Preserve any dignity for your family of the public shame that you have deliberately brought to them.

Rick Callender

Lloyd,

This afternoon when I got home a family member asked me about "some politician from the valley named Carter" that had made incredibly racist comments about farm workers. She asked if I knew who the person was. My response was I didn't know of any politician named Carter in the valley and that the only Carter I knew of with any type of name recognition in the valley is "Lloyd Carter--who would never say anything like that. He's a good person" There was no way that I could reconcile the Lloyd Carter I know as being capable of making such statements.

I was shocked and appalled to find out that it was indeed you. When I read the actual quote I was outraged. In your apology that you state that:

"My remarks were intended to focus on the social costs of exploiting an immigrant worker population which is denied adequate pay, housing and education." Lloyd, even when I give your statement the most generous interpretation possible, I cannot find it to be designed to have the intended focus that you claim. In your careers as writer, lawyer and environmental advocate, you have learned the importance of precisely stating what one intends to say. I don't know how you can expect people to interpret your statement as no more than a poor choice of words.

As you know, I had in recent months (unsuccessfully) tried to arrange for you speak at a forum on Westlands water issues. I was concerned that the growers were successfully convincing farm workers that the environmentalists don't give a damn about whether farm workers had work or not. Knowing your history, it was my hope that you would be able to articulate that there really is concern about the well being of farm workers.

I don't see how you will ever be able to do that now. Your remarks have tremendously undermined not only what you have done over the years, but have also pretty much sealed the argument that the environmentalist involved in the Westlands litigation really don't care how many farm worker families are thrown out of work, lose their homes, etc.

My father-in-law was a bracero. My wife and all her brothers and sisters have worked as farm workers. My children are children of a farm worker mother. It will be very hard to convince them, or any other farm workers or children of farm workers, that your intent was meant to focus attention on the exploitation of workers.

You have given both yourself and the environmental movement a black eye. Your statement makes your past actions irrelevant in the minds of many. If you desire to re-establish your reputation of caring about farm workers and being opposed to their exploitation, it will take much more than the apology above. If you are to be successful you must strongly, frequently, sincerely and consistently seek forums to advance your previously stated support of farm workers and their rights.

I hope that you strive to do that. You should be prepared, however, to be greeted with a great deal of skepticism from the tens of thousands of farm workers, their families and their advocates that you offended. If and when you do that, perhaps then (and only then) your apology will be accepted and your reputation recovered.

Chris Schneider

Lloyd,

It's hard to see how your comments, in any context, could be construed as "intended to focus on the social costs of exploiting an immigrant worker population".

Rather, they have a very negative racist undertone that reveals your true feelings and motivations.

I consider myself an environmentalist, and you are an embarassment. You do not speak for me. And you are doing great damage to the environmental cause.

Repent. Shut up. Go away.

I'm very angry of your racial comments. I'm an immigrant came as undocumented and I'm now a U.S citizen. My parents never received any welfare and I never became a gang member or sold drugs. I have a bachelor from the University and I paid my tuition with my two jobs. So next time you consume a fruit, vegetable or a glass of milk, keep in mind that one of those criminals as you call them had something to do with it. Your words are traveling fast through out the central valley. You are really showing your colors, it’s a shame if you don’t like to live among those criminals may be California is not for you, find your own island.

Lloyd

As the son of a former farm worker and as a former farm worker myself, I was incensed with your comment to the KMPH reporter. You have exposed your very narrow mind.

The interview with Channel 26 has to be the most xenophobic, hate and fear monger speak I have ever heard. It is quite clear that you are passionate about your causes, but you lost all credibility with me when you exposed your inner self in that interview. You are definitely an environmental wacko.

Apology not accepted,

José Flores

Mr. Lloyd Carter,
On behalf of Latino Issues Forum and its Board of Directors, I would like to express my deepest concern regarding your disparaging remarks in the recent discussion regarding Fresno County community members.
In the story, covering the event (public debate of water issues), the reporter mentioned towns in Fresno County, such as Kerman and Mendota drying up forcing thousands out of work, to which you, president of California's Save our Streams Council, said, "They’re not even American citizens for starters. Do you think we should employ illegal aliens? What parent raises their child to be a farm worker? These kids are the least educated people in America or the southwest corner of this Valley. They turn to lives of crime. They go on welfare. They get into drug trafficking and they join gangs."
Words cannot begin to express the profound frustration in your comments. They are truly offensive, inaccurate and ignorant. It is a shame that we still have this type of mindset in our community. Your ideology proves your ignorance in not recognizing the value that the farm workers play in sustaining our daily lives. They risk their lives daily so that we can provide for our families by putting food on our tables. I am the product of an immigrant family and I am proud to say I am educated with a Masters degree. This came to pass because of the sacrifices and support of my hardworking immigrant parents.
Your comments reflect the kind of leadership this community can do without. Rest a sure, this will not go unnoticed.

Yammilette Rodriguez Latino Issues Forum Central Valley Regional Director