Fed up. A thread:

With all of the commotion lately, some have suggested a peaceful uprising to quell such injustices as government overreach, inaction, and outright fraud. I fully agree that somebody ought to do something, but the problems aren't directly affecting me to the...

2... point that I'm upset enough to disrupt my life and business in order to do something about it. If things continue in the direction they seem to be headed, soon I, and millions like me will be fed up. I want to share a little historical story about folks getting fed up...

3...that's not in your history books, but as people involved in agriculture, I think you'll enjoy. This all happened when I was 8 years old, so forgive me, I'm a little foggy on the details. My dad could tell this story much better, but he's not on Twitter.
Through the early...

4...1970's, agriculture had enjoyed the normal ebb and flow of high and low commodity prices. By 1977, the agriculture economy had begun to shrink and farmers were feeling the crunch. Some got together and decided they would form parades of tractors with picket signs to...

5...let the public know they were disgruntled with farm programs and commodity prices. Now before you go back and look at prices and say how good they had it, keep in mind that these guys were trying to scratch out a living on very small farms compared to today. A BTO back...

6...then farmed 2000 acres. Anyway, they had made a few parades (tractorcades as they called them) and were getting some real attention.
In the 1970's, before NAFTA, Texas was a big vegetable farming state. There were huge packing sheds from Brownsville all the way north to...

7...to Hereford, Texas. In early 1977, some Texas vegetable farmers got wind that Mexican vegetables were being trucked across the border into Mcallen, Texas and being labeled in "product of USA" crates. This infuriated Texas farmers. For one, it was illegal, but the main...

8...issue was that Texan farmers were already struggling, and this just contributed to the American price decline.
Since their protests were garnering attention, about 400 farmers from across the southern United States decided to protest this injustice. They got a parade...

9... permit for a 3 hour parade and marched on foot to the border, holding their picket signs. When they reached the border bridge, they marched onto it, causing a total disruption in border traffic. Within 25 minutes, a swat team had arrived and blocked off both ends of the...

10...bridge. The police immediately began tear gassing the farmers and beating them severely with billy clubs. My wife's grandfather was beaten so badly, he was hospitalized with severe damage to his kidneys. Law enforcement, equipped with riot gear and machine guns rounded...

11...up all the farmers they could catch and put them in jail. About 250 were locked up as I recall, my dad among them. Within hours, every farmer I knew was on their way to McAllen. Upon their arrival, things got tense quickly. Picture thousands of farmers, some armed, some...

12...with 4 wheel drive tractors with dozer blades, determined to get their friends and neighbors out of jail. At one time, a farmer was parked on the jailhouse steps in his 4 wheel drive tractor throttled up, in gear, demanding the release of his neighbors. Police had their...

13...guns drawn on him, and I'm sure, if they had shot him, that tractor would have gone right through the jailhouse and a battle of epic proportions would have ensued. Fortunately, farmers and police were able to deescalate the situation. The Texas attorney general got...

14...involved and saw to the farmer's release, without charges.
The protesters later discovered the reason their protest had caused such a harsh reaction was the mayor of McAllen was in on the re-labeling of the vegetables.
If you're fed up, do something about it, but know...

15...things can get out of hand quickly. I can only imagine what modern farm machinery could do to a jailhouse.