Philosopher's Corner

In Unity Is Strength

by Kelly R Piercy

A People United Cannot Be Defeated
Caesar Chavez

What does united mean? Of course it means to be banded together. However, we must look deeper to understand what it means in this context and in our context. The root is unit. This means one. From unit we come to unity, to become one or to express as a unit or as one.

That is all quite simple. Allow me to make it complex.

To begin, let's look at the word sin and find its meaning. Before you scrabble for your King James, let me save you the effort. Sin is from the Old English. It means to miss the mark. When an archer fired at a target, the distance by which the center of the target was missed was the sin. Of course, this was easily translated from the Greek when the King James translation was compiled, replacing the Greek hamartia with the commonly understood sin.

To fail in unity is to sin.

How so? Consider the archer. It is not the bow that guides the arrow to the target any more than it is the archer's eye, arm, fingers. Study the archer. One arm draws the bow while the other steadies the aim. The eye marks the target while the brain compensates for the offset of arrow and eye. The legs steady the body so the shoulders become the platform for the arms to adjust. The fingers of one hand hold the bow solid while the fingers of the other release the arrow. Even then the target is not attained. The arrow itself must be true and the flights must keep it on track compensated for wind and distance.

No part of striking true can be accomplished by a single part of archer, bow, or arrow. From creation of bow and arrow to piercing the target must work in concert for the common goal or the result is sin.

To work towards a common goal, with each component filling its role in support of the whole is unity.

It becomes more complex. The Imperial Valley in the California desert grows enough vegetable to feed the entire united states. California is the world's largest rice producer. In Texas they speak in terms of acres per cow, in the Central Valley in California they speak in terms of cows per acre. California is the eighth largest economy in the world. The world's largest wine producer is California.

Still, Caesar Chavez brought this prodigious giant to its knees. A bunch of underpaid, many with no English, most with little enough to feed and house their families became one in purpose. Each understood their role and none superseded another as they marched and sat and demanded. These were not the sons and daughters of the wealthy or even the middle-classes. These were the poorest of the poor, the unseen and the untouched. These were the true comparison to us today. Few noticed and even fewer cared what became of these people. Many abused and assaulted these brave people.

And then came Caesar Chavez to tell these people that if they stood together in common cause they would win. They stood united and first an industry, then a state, and then a nation bowed while they raised their heads to join in partnership with the society that trod upon them.

A People United Cannot Be Defeated.

The question is ours to answer.