Remarks by Arturo S. Rodriguez, President United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO Services for Father Bill O’Donnell December 14, 2003—Berkeley, Calif.
Cesar Chavez often spoke about the difference between being of service and being a servant.
Many good people perform small deeds of charity and service in their every day lives. By boycotting grapes and other products, Cesar gave millions of Americans the chance to help farm workers by making small sacrifices.
But being a servant, in Cesar’s eyes, demanded much more. He believed those who are truly outraged by conditions can bring about real change only by accepting a life of sacrifice and struggle.
I have known relatively few people who were true servants—men and women who could demand commitment from others because of how they lived their lives.
One of them was Cesar Chavez. Another was Father Bill O’Donnell.
We lost count of the times Father Bill stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the farm workers…in good times and bad…whenever he was called. He marched. He picketed. He went to jail with us.
We will never forget the dark days of the grape strike in 1973. Thousands of strikers were arrested for breaking anti-picketing injunctions. Hundreds were beaten by grower goons. Dozens were shot. And two were murdered.
Father Bill was in the thick of it all, in his famous wardrobe—a Roman collar and blue jeans—staring down the goons and inspiring the strikers.
At a national priests convention in 1974 in San Francisco, Father Bill got more than 100 priests to join hundreds of farm workers boycotting a nearby Safeway store. There, he faced down San Francisco police about to arrest boycotters inside the supermarket, including our brother, Fred Ross Jr.
Then he spotted a former seminary classmate who was a police sergeant.
This was one of those rare occasions when Father Bill used his negotiating skills to ensure no one was arrested.
He walked every step of the way, with blistered feet, on the Gallo boycott march from San Fransciso to Modesto in 1975. (By the way, we may have to boycott Gallo again next year.)
He took time to be a priest for the farm workers too—often traveling back and forth from Berkeley—from baptizing our children to helping bury our dead.
We were also proud of him when time after time, year after year he stood consistently against injustice—sometimes when it was unpopular and often when it meant going to jail—from opposing the death penalty in this state to the death squads in Central America.
One of Cesar’s favorite Biblical passages was the commandment set out in the Book of the Prophet Micah in the Old Testament: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.”
Father Bill was a genuine servant who fulfilled God’s commandments by giving his life for others.
Thank you.
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