All of you, I'm sure at one time or another, stood up for something you believed in. The ‘50s and ‘60s for me were years of awakening to the injustices in the world. For me it was reading about the Holocaust, slavery and racism. Of course all this came to me as a shock wave that has followed me through my life.

After years of being active in the Civil Rights movement, writing letters on behalf of prisoners for Amnesty International and the Southern Poverty Law Center, I got married, worked helping my husband finish his doctorate, had a baby and tried to balance my own career. So much fell by the wayside, but my mind was always aware that things were getting worse, especially in the area of child slavery and horrific working conditions in the developing countries.

In the ‘80s I started a company producing jewelry made of Fimo Clay in the Philippines. I had not intended to start a factory, but when I saw the poverty and millions of people out of work, I just knew I had to do something and the jewelry business was what I knew. Things were going well and the business was growing. We landed a big order from Walt Disney and everyone was excited; however one component in the design was too difficult to make out of Fimo polymer clay and we decided to see if we could have this contracted outside the factory with someone who did injection molding. My manager, Matthew, told me about a factory, just three streets away that did injection molding. We made an appointment to go and see them. I was shocked to see the factory – windows painted black, no air conditioning, the stink of the toilets, bare light bulbs hanging over tables. The workers were elbow-to-elbow and they could barely move. I knew right then and there I was going to check out their entire operation, not sure what I was going to do with the information, but something was brewing inside of me. How I wish I had had one of those secret cameras in my bag!

Transformations

We tell stories.

We tell stories to make sense of our lives.

We tell stories to communicate our experience of being alive.

We tell stories in our own distinct voice. Our own unique rhythm and tonality.

Transformations is a weekly story-telling column. The stories are written by community members who are my students. Our stories will be about family, love, loss and good times. We hope to make you laugh and cry. Maybe we will convince you to tell your stories.

— Kathrin Seitz

“Everyone, when they get quiet, when they become desperately honest with themselves, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.” — Henry Miller

Kathrin Seitz teaches Method Writing in Rockport, New York City and Florida. She can be reached at kathrin@kathrinseitz.com.

I asked to see their shipping department because I wanted to see who their customers were. There they were, piled up to the ceiling, boxes marked for a U.S. greeting card company. I wanted to throw up. Now I knew why we had people coming to our place daily for jobs. Our factory was like the Hilton and all workers shared in the profits, unheard of in the Philippines. I decided there was no way I would order anything from them and we figured out a way to make the component in our own facility.

When I returned home the conditions of that factory ate at me and I decided to visit a few stores to see where they had things made. Sure enough, as I turned over all those little things they sell, on the bottom was "Made in China, Philippines, India, Vietnam," etc. What am I going to do, I asked myself, and then I remembered writing letter years before to our local newspaper in Wagga, Wagga, Australia, about the firing of young women working for the town, if they married. It was OK if they lived with someone, had children, but they better not marry. My letter changed the town's laws and I realized then the power of a letter. So I wrote to 60 Minutes asking them to do an exposé on the working conditions of the factories this company was using. They wrote back saying it was just too sensitive a subject for them to tackle at that time (shame on them). I then wrote a letter to the president of the company, telling him that I had visited all his factories in Philippines, China, India etc. (small lie) and told him that a letter had been written to 60 Minutes asking them to do an expose. Of course I never heard from the president because I did not give my name or address.

A number of months passed and I had forgotten about the letters, until one day I was back in Manila and my manager turned down the street that the factory we had rejected was located. He said, "You won't believe the change that has taken place at that factory," and stopped the car so we could look into the compound. My eyes welled up with tears as I saw the black paint off the windows, florescent lighting inside, air conditioners, a basketball court and, outside — picnic tables. I told Matthew about the letter I wrote to the company and to 60 Minutes, and did he think it had any bearing on the changes that had taken place. He said, "You better believe it. The president probably flipped out when he read your letter and was on the phone to every factory to clean things up at any cost."

I like to think that that letter improved the working conditions of hundreds of people. Now, I reach out to all of you. Write those letters. Take that hour on Sunday and offer it up to the universe to help those who can't help themselves. Your words are powerful and will have an impact on the changes that must be made to make our world a better place, release innocent people from prison, and make our government and multinational companies think twice about the decisions they make. Think of your letters as an offering this Thanksgiving season. Get out that pen and paper and offer up your thoughts.

Linda Leonard is currently having fun displaying her jewelry in a booth at the Camden Showcase and writing her stories for her grandkids. Formerly, she was a buyer, antique dealer and jewelry designer/wholesaler.