–chorus of Weezer’s “Only in Dreams,” words and music by Rivers Cuomo
I’ve never listened to the rock band Weezer so I can’t say whether I have missed anything. But I can honestly say I was touched by the lines above when I went a-googling the lyrics of the band, which was the hands-down favorite of my late colleague Terry Nguyen.
My search was for a kind of link if you will back to Terry so I could somehow, hopefully fittingly, commemerate his tragic death one year ago June 1st and, above all, to illuminate the short yet shining life he led.
Then it struck me that the best way to recall Terry at this time would be to share with you some of his own words.
The passage below was penned as part of an essay Terry wrote in 2007 to win one of the Young Leaders Scholarships presented by the American Society of Business Publications Editors to promising young journalists. He won that prestigious honor but died shortly before it was to be bestowed.
Please pause for a moment and reflect on what this wonderful young man, just 27 at his passing, had to say when he recalled an incident that helped inspire him to be a journalist:
“I vividly remember at UConn [The University of Connecticut] working on a story that had moved me more than any other. A music student was performing a practice recital in front of her classmates when she collapsed onstage and died shortly thereafter. I learned that she played the trumpet with a prosthetic arm. I spoke with her friends, her teachers, university officials, and her father — who at times fought through tears to speak to me. For obvious reasons, it was an extremely sensitive topic, and I got no sleep the night my article was sent to the printer.
“I bring this particular story up because I learned very early in my career the value of journalism. What I wrote has an impact on how a deceased person will be remembered, and that article is most likely sitting in a scrapbook right now. This example illustrates why I believe journalism is truly a public service — one that’s worth preserving with integrity at whatever cost.”
- Gen. George S. Patton Jr., U.S. Army (1885-1945)
While in recent months everything from speculators to refinery maintenance to the developing world has been blamed for the rapid run-up in fuel prices, it now seems the real issue we should all be losing sleep over– especially ALL branches of our federal government– is whether the world just might run out of oil much sooner than later.
That’s the message I get from some seriously sobering reports in major newspapers this morning. For example, a report by Neil King Jr. and Peter Fristch in The Wall Street Journal reveals that “The world’s premier energy monitor is preparing a sharp downward revision of its oil-supply forecast, a shift that reflects deepening pessimism over whether oil companies can keep abreast of booming demand.”
The reporters explain that the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) is attempting for the first time to gauge the condition of the world’s top 400 oil fields. The findings won’t come out until November…”but the bottom line is already clear: Future crude supplies could be far tighter than previously thought. ”
Oil field sunset– not a pretty picture
The upshot, write King and Fritsch, is that “A pessimistic supply outlook from the IEA could further rattle an oil market that already has seen crude prices rocket over $130 a barrel, double what they were a year ago.”
I know, I know, just what we in America, land of cockeyed optimists, don’t need– more pessimism.
On the other hand, in my book anyway, unhappy news based on actual facts is not cause for pessimism.
It’s cause for action. Just what action is the real question.
That must be answered for all of us by all of those we’ve elected to wield the levers of power in Washington.
And, yes, I know they’re politicians and not miracle workers.
But I am convinced they can do much more than they have and might actually do something more than they have if enough voters applied enough pressure.
And I argue, as always, that the leadership needed to make something happen should start at the top of the Executive Branch– in the Oval Office where the sign used to say “The buck stops here.”
Where’s “Give-’em-hell” Harry Truman now that we need him again?
Just when you think things can’t get any worse, leave it to a Wall Streeter to wreck your holiday weekend– a full two days before it starts.
I know my job here is to comment on trucking but as I don’t own a commercial vehicle, nothing brings the fuel crisis home to me as thumpingly as the price of gas.
Of course gas prices at the pump are affected by many factors– transportation costs (yep, trucks bring it!), taxes, and a real bone of contention in my home state of Connecticut: the legalized thievery known as “zone pricing.”
But I digress… The thing is when plain old regular gas hit $4.00 and then promptly started floating upward to reach the $4.19 range this past week, I was thrilled to hear over the car radio that at least one analyst expected the price to peak Memorial Day Weekend and then if not drop at least slide on back a bit.
Dream on, Dave. That bubble of optimism was spectacularly burst this morning by a piece in The New York Times that revealed an “oracle of oil” (that is the newspaper’s description, not mine), one Arjun N. Murti, an analyst with giant investment bank Goldman Sachs, “foresees a ’super spike’ — a price surge that will soon drive crude oil to $200 a barrel.”
The barrel we are all over
The Gray Lady report states that “A few years ago, rivals scoffed when he predicted oil would breach $100 a barrel. Few are laughing now. Oil shattered yet another record on Tuesday, touching $129.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. ”
It goes on to point out that “the grim calculus of Mr. Murti’s prediction, issued in March and reconfirmed two weeks ago, is enough to give anyone pause: in an America of $200 oil, gasoline could cost more than $6 a gallon. ”
Well, I am not laughing one bit and refuse to just pause over this.
I for one am very concerned that the Lamest Duck Adminstration, which still has many levers of power at its fingertips, will actually do anything significant to ease the slow death by oil our economy seems consigned to suffer.
There’s a lamer duck than Howard in DC these days
Barring that, all we can do at work and at home is be as economical as possible and hang on till next January when a new POTUS might show us what a real leader can make happen.
I’ve long been disturbed by how so many people– truckers included– still do not wear seatbelts when in a vehicle. Maybe I am a hopeless Safety Sam but I even tell my kids to stay buckled up when we pull into a gas station or wherever on the off chance that someone may plow into our car while we are assumably safely parked.
Why might I think so? Well, one of many reasons leaps right to mind. Back in my college days, several of my friends and I spent a pleasant if Scotch-soaked evening in our hometown’s Safari Pub (I think every burg worth its salt had such an establishment in the ’70s but I digress). Things got interesting after last call when we all left and headed for our separate cars.
It was raining cats and dogs and foggy to boot and partly due to that and partly due to the ample time he’d just spent with Johnnie Walker, my friend Jim (just like in A.A., no surnames here!) fairly promptly drove the front of his late-model Pinto into a rather high parking-lot curb. His speed was low enough for the little car to look hardly damaged.
But he was not wearing his seat belt and upon impact, his body travelled forward unimpeded and– not being the tallest guy around– his mouth slammed into the steering wheel. That led to a trip to the emergency room where a plastic surgeon was called in (wisely) to sew up the insides of his cheeks, which were cut to ribbons by the orthodontic braces on his teeth.
Lesson learned: Could it be any easier? Just wear the seatbelt and save yourself all sorts of pain and suffering if not worse. As for me, the only place you’ll catch me in a vehicle without being buckled up is in my own driveway.
No wonder I am thrilled to report that Lifeguard Technologies– by far the biggest supplier of seatbelts to trucking– has launched its “Click, Tug and Snug” (CTS) safety campaign to help drive up the use of seatbelts by truck drivers.
If you click below, you can see a sample clip of the nine-minute CTS training video right from here:
If you click here, you will go directly to Lifeguard’s CTS site where you can view four clips from the video to get a fuller sense of its content.
You can order free copies of the video for training purposes from Lifeguard at the CTS site by clicking on the “Contact” tab.
According to Lifeguard, the video is intended to be generic but does include instructions on how to use their Komfort Latch and Sliding Komfort Latch to make wearing seatbelts more comfortable. The company also urges fleets to equip cabs with high-visibility (typically orange) seatbelts to encourage consistent use as they make it is easy to see who’s buckled up at a glance.
And if you– or your drivers– still need convincing as to why everyone should wear seatbelts in every vehicle, take a look at what someone who really should have known better has to say on this topic:
Not at all unlike auto giants GM and Ford– and diesel engine maker Cummins among other manufacturers serving trucking here– North American-based automotive parts suppliers are apparently prospering by going global.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal today, both Visteon Corp. and TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. have “joined the growing list of parts suppliers reporting improved financial results thanks to cost cuts and efforts to penetrate international markets, even as the outlook worsens for car and truck sales in North America.”
The reporter goes on to observe that “Most U.S. parts makers… have spent the past few years closing plants in North America and moving production to low-cost countries. Most have cut their North American work force.”
So this is really a good news-bad news story. It can’t be all bad for the U.S. economy (and presumably the Canadian, too, given its huge role in auto and truck production) for these North American industrial powerhouses to be doing well financially; it certainly can’t be bad for their stockholders and maybe not even for their customers.
On the other hand, the shift of automobile and auto parts production overseas not only removes high-paying factory jobs from North America, it reduces the amount of that outbound freight available for U.S. and Canadian motor and rail carriers to haul to ports.
I know free-traders would argue that those factory jobs will be duly replaced by high-tech or service jobs including those in the so-called “knowledge sector” and they may be right, although I for one am not entirely sure they are.
But one thing I think everyone in trucking can question is this: Will the automotive freight now being created elsewhere in the world ever be replaced here by anything a truck can haul?
Where have all the parts gone? Gone to overseas many have…
