“Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you are talking about – they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community.” –George Bailey from the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”

I know, I know – do I have to go and quote from what’s considered one of the cheesiest Christmas movies of all time? Isn’t it going to be on television enough here over the next few days?

Well, I can’t help it. Something of a flop when it came out in 1946, Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” went on to become a major holiday classic — and also became one of Jimmy Stewart’s most heralded roles. I won’t bore you with the details (turn on any TV channel, cable or otherwise – you’ll see it somewhere) but suffice to say it’s a film that’s become part of the culture in our country. Heck, my political science textbook back in college used this film as the basis for several chapters spent delving into the quintessential system of values formed during baby boom era.

Yet I think this little black and white film still speaks to a lot of beliefs deep-rooted in the American psyche: that every person’s life, no matter how insignificant it seems to them, has an impact far greater than they know. Like ripples in a pond, a person’s actions shift events in all sorts of unexpected ways. George Bailey saves the life of his brother, Harry, and allows him to go on to college in his place. Eventually, Harry becomes an ace fighter pilot and saves the lives of thousands of soldiers stuck on a troopship after shooting down a kamikaze attacker. Without George in those two critical moments in Harry’s life, Harry could not go on to save other lives – something George is shown by his guardian angel Clarence later on.

It’s pretty significant, too, I think that Jimmy Stewart took on this role. Already hugely famous before World War II, Stewart fought in the skies over Europe as a bomber pilot and squadron commander and proved to be popular and well liked by his fellow airmen. A bonafide war hero, he could’ve taken on any number of dashing roles – indeed, Hollywood practically hounded him to do some stirring war movie – but George Bailey is the character he chose to portray in his first post-war film.

For me, though, this sappy cinematic Capra masterpiece serves as an important reminder: that a person’s value isn’t wrapped up in fame and fortune, how many cars they have in the driveway, or the designer labels on their blue jeans. It’s about what they do in life to make even their small corner of the world a better place. That’s where the true value in humanity lies, I think.

To round out the sappiness, I’d like to leave you with some words from Robert F. Kennedy: and regardless of your views of the Kennedy family in history as well as politics, I think Robert’s words speak pretty effectively to what we truly need to hold dear in this country of ours. Merry Christmas.

“Let us be clear at the outset that we will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress and an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the gross national product.

And if the gross national product includes all of this, there is much it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, of the joy in their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, the strength of their marriages, the intelligence of our public debate, or the integrity of our public officials. The gross national product measures neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile; and it can tell us everything about America – except whether we are proud to be Americans.”

I love the truck calendars I start getting around this time of year. Regular as clockwork, they start appearing in my mailbox – chock full of spit-shined trucks of various makes and models, rolling iron worthy of any showroom in the world.

One of my favorites is Shell’s Rotella SuperRigs calendar, now in its 25th year believe it or not. It highlights one-of-a-kind creations crafted from chrome, aluminum, and steel – and 120 owner-operators from across the U.S. and Canada competed for the chance to be pictured in Shell’s 2008 calendar (along with $25,000 in cash prizes – not too shabby, if I say so myself).

Curtis Christians of Rockford, MO captured “Best of Show” honors, taking home a cash prize of $10,000 for his 2005 Peterbilt 379 tractor and 2005 Great Dane trailer, which you’ll see on the cover. But on the back is a special “before and after” montage detailing the transformation of Bob and Geri Martin’s 1995 Peterbilt 379. They won a special $50,000 truck makeover from Shell, with the work done by S&J Truck Sales. I’ve seen this truck myself up close and let me tell you it’s a beauty.

Yet these calendars are becoming more than just mere homage’s to sheet metal. With each succeeding year, the stories behind the trucks and their owners are on display – perfectly captured vignettes that offer interesting and sometimes poignant insight into the human lives in trucking, not only in the U.S. but also from across the world.

Here’s a perfect example: Volvo Trucks North America’s 2008 calendar. There are 12 great stories in here, each told with a handful of photos and well-crafted prose. There’s the Tracy family, owner of Dot Foods, plying the refrigerated trade across the U.S. In Scotland we meet David McPherson, CEO of another family-owned business, McPherson Transport, which transports whiskey and other related products (and oh don’t I want to go visit THESE guys!) There’s Nicolas Ancazi, deftly picking his way along narrow mountain roads in Bolivia, and tattoo-covered Neil Roddham, who’s spent 14 years driving massive oilrig trucks across the burning sands of Yemen and Oman.

The one that really caught my attention, though, is Jay Haripersad’s story. When he decided to make trucking his livelihood in 1978, driving was the one thing he couldn’t do in South Africa at the time, then suffering under the brutal heel of apartheid. A person of color, like Jay, would’ve faced fines, fail time or worse if they drove a truck – a privilege reserved for only whites. But he persevered and today is CEO of Westmead Carriers – and his trucks sport some eye-popping designs, too; a testament to the African landscape that surrounds him.

There’s a lot more stories in there (you’ll find the one about South Korea’s “Maniac” truck clubs a hoot, I am sure) that go into making this particular calendar more than just a mere collection of dates and beauty shots. And I truly hope this trend sticks around, for I love to read stories like these. They open up a window into the life and times of truckers everywhere, which helps me at least appreciate that much more what this industry does for our country – and indeed the world – every day.

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” – Shakespeare’s Henry V

As luck would have it, I got to look inside the working life of today’s diesel truck technician this week, courtesy of three top-notch pros – Matt Wheeler, Pat Driscoll, and Michael Willoughby, along with added insight from Ken Carter, their service manager or “head coach” as he prefers to call his position.

Wheeler, Driscoll, and Willoughby all work for Rush Enterprises, at the Rush Truck Center in Oklahoma City. They’d each spent 10 long months taking training classes to prepare for the “entrance exam” to Rush’s second annual technician skills rodeo held this week in Nashville TN. All three passed, joining 57 of their colleagues from other Rush Truck Centers around the country at the competition.

What struck me the most about this particular group of techs – whom I quickly dubbed “The Oklahoma Crew” – was their calm approach to the contest, leavened with considerable humor. Talking with them during breaks during the day and over drinks in the evening, I learned their shop – like most truck service centers, I suspect – is a close-knit fraternity, where the techs kid each other mercilessly as a way to break up the tension they work under, trying to unravel and fix an ever-widening range of complex vehicle problems on tight deadlines for customers.

“Keeping up with the changes in technology is what I think is our biggest challenge,” said Wheeler, a seven-year Air Force veteran whose been at Rush’s Oklahoma City site for 11 years now. “For a guy to come in here fresh from school and start working on these engines today, it can be really overwhelming.”

Wheeler has the highest energy of the bunch: quick to laugh and tell a joke, even one at his own expense. (“I don’t like heights,” he told me. “Which left my father wondering why the hell I joined the Air Force!”) A heavy equipment repair specialist stationed in Alaska for years, fond of heavy-metal T-shirts and a prized leather Harley Davidson jacket, Wheeler jumped at the chance to repair trucks somewhere – anywhere – in warmer climes after he left the service.

Driscoll is the relative newcomer to the group, an expatriate from Canada that’s been in Oklahoma City for two years but whose experience in diesel engine repair spans nearly three decades. “I wanted to work on motorcycles, but there wasn’t any money in it,” Driscoll explained to me. “So I went into diesel engine repair.”

He still raced motorcycles in his spare time, up until 1994, largely in multi-day, 100-mile or more off-road endurance contests, suffering a broken foot and ribs along the way. But when his wife finished nursing school at the same Canadian hospitals were going through layoffs, they decided to try their luck south of the border. His classic Canadian accent (“Repairing trucks is fun, eh?”) coupled to a nearly constant smile (“He’s ALWAYS smiling!” said Wheeler) made him an easy fit for the Oklahoma crew.

Willoughby followed the most unlikely path of them all into the business. Built like a boxer, sporting a shaved head and a series of complex tattoos, he started out in a lawn mower repair shop, then spent a five-year hitch in the Army repairing Soviet armor and Vietnam-era Sheridan tanks for the “Red Teams” in war games training in California.

He literally joined the diesel truck technician ranks with no truck experience at all, yet more than made up for it with unstinting hard work – and would be the only one from the Oklahoma crew to join 11 technicians in the final round of the competition, winning $3,000 and a $1 an hour raise in the process.

“I may not have talent, I may not be fast, but you will NEVER outwork me,” he said. After 12 years in Oklahoma City, Willoughby believes he knows why people like him become – and stay – technicians, despite the grease, the scraped knuckles, sweltering heat and cold, and the fast-paced technology upgrades that keep them hunched over computers more than they turn wrenches much of the time.

“Repairing trucks is like a puzzle – you want to figure it out and you HATE to give up,” he explained. “You also feel perpetually like the new kid, telling yourself ‘I can’t WAIT to get experience, because then this job won’t be so HARD.’ But what you really are is a full-time student – you are always learning something new. This job will make you mad many times, but it’s never boring. If you get bored, then there’s something wrong.”

“It’s such a fast-paced business now that you can’t afford to be set in your ways,” noted Ken Carter, the service manager at Rush’s Oklahoma City site. “It takes a special personality to do this: you must have a passion for it.” Originally from Massachusetts, Carter has worked on trucks and engines his whole life, starting around age seven helping out in his dad’s trucking business, followed by vocational school, work for Caterpillar, running his own shop, then joining Rush about eight years ago.

“We have about 25 technicians, five managers – one assistant manager, three shop foreman, and a warranty manager – and me,” he said. “I’m like the head coach – focused on strategy, finding and hiring the best players. My managers are like offensive and defensive coaches, focused on developing and executing the individual plays.”

It’s a wry comparison; one Carter delivers with laughter and an easy smile – traits that carry over into how he deals with his crew on a daily basis. For to Ken’s mind, the most important asset in any shop is chemistry and teamwork: that’s what really makes a shop function at a high level.

“That’s why I am a coach, in that my job is to figure out how to pull a team together,” Carter said. “They didn’t hire me as just a manager either – they hired me to think, to find ways to do things better. And I can’t do this alone – all my guys help me do it. That’s what great about our place: no one has an ego and they don’t watch the clock. They all help each other out.”

It’s tougher now on the whole crew, as their two best and beloved senior technicians died back to back this year – Melvin Young and Charlie Sossaman. “They were like uncles, looking out for me,” recalled Willoughby, who still gets emotional talking about them. “They would watch out for you and yell at you sometimes, but that’s because they wanted to make sure you didn’t get hurt – and that you remembered what they told you 10 minutes ago. In many ways I felt like I grew up in this shop; it felt just like a family at times.”

“They were absolutely great guys,” added Wheeler. “Melvin actually wore out a hammer working there – a hammer! Who wears them out? But he also taught me you don’t have to be fast – just persistent. Charlie taught me how to think – sometimes telling me the wrong thing to see if I’d figure it out.”

Now, Wheeler and Willoughby both find themselves taking on the role Melvin and Charlie played for so long. “One of the most poignant moments for me – upsetting yet also neat – was when one of the younger techs asked me for help and I told him, ‘Go find one of the older guys.’ Then he came back to me and said, ‘You’re it.’ That stopped me in my tracks,” said Willoughby.

But it’s also a responsibility they are both accepting, too. “It’s like the old saying: ‘Give a man a fish, he has a meal. Teach him to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime.’ But then most of the younger guys would rather us just give them the fish,” said Wheeler.

But Willoughby added thoughtfully that this is the way it works in the diesel technician world – knowledge isn’t just acquired from books and the classroom; it’s handed down from one generation of techs to the next. “It’s really not me in this shirt – it’s Melvin, Charlie, and all the technicians I’ve learned from in here. They taught me all that I know. I am their hands now.”

Everyone in trucking knows that fuel prices are skyrocketing and burning a gigantic hole in a lot of wallets out there (more so for ones without fuel surcharges in place – ones that actually stick, I might add). Yet when you start looking at the numbers, that’s when the scariness of the situation really comes into focus, I think.

According to the International Energy Agency, oil prices jumped 45.3% since January. And U.S. diesel prices are up 18% just since September – nearly double the 10% rise in gasoline prices. The situation isn’t going to get better anytime soon, either, because a lot of new unexpected pressures are now coming to bear on diesel supplies.

For example, the Wall Street Journal noted that a spate of refinery outages in Europe is creating a wellspring of demand for diesel in that part of the world. That’s because half of the 15 million cars and light vehicles sold in Europe every year run on diesel, compared to just 50,000 diesel cars sold in the U.S. annually.

Then there’s diesel’s arch enemy, home heating oil. Both are made from the same base petroleum distillate and when demand for heating oil goes up, it takes precedence over diesel fuel production. And that’s what’s happening now – and not only is demand for home heating oil up, so are prices, jumping 10% in the last month.

Then there’s the problem posed by rising automotive sales in China and India, two gigantic nations that didn’t use to have major auto demand. Annual car sales in China alone have doubled since 2004 and are estimated to hit 4.1 million units a year by 2008. By 2010, annual car sales may reach 10 million units per year in China, jumping to 20 million units by 2020 if the trend holds – making that country the single largest car market in the world.

It’s a grim forecast, but then we knew it wouldn’t be pretty.

It’s a gray, cold dawn in Heidelberg, Germany – the air is heavy with impending rain and the few people up and about at this hour move quickly by on its weathered cobblestone streets, heading to work or to class.

A town of some 140,000 souls, Heidelberg (an adaptation of “Heidelbeerenberg,” which is German for “Blueberry Mountain) sits nestled in the steep Neckar river valley and is home to the renowned University of Heidelberg, founded in 1386. Its narrow, winding roads and dense construction hark back to its roots in the ancient world, first as home to a Celtic fortress in the fifth century B.C., followed by a Roman one in 40 A.D. until the Germans pushed them out in 260 A.D.

Today, however, Heidelberg is more medieval in physical appearance than anything else, with large castles dotting the hillsides, its hotels, shops, and cathedrals seemingly frozen in time – awaiting only knights on horseback to reclaim it. Yet this particular morning is given over not to the horse, but its successor, the truck – and they are everywhere, large and small, the ubiquitous tool of modern life.

Refrigerated trucks from Mueller Inc. and Perry Wilkens Transport are stocking up the bakeries and restaurants as I wander down the street from the Hotel Zum Ritter St. George. Sprinters and other vans come and go, leaving bundles of newspapers and magazines in their wake.

Then, ever so slowly, a phalanx of refuse trucks – painted bright neon orange and white – begin wending their way up the narrow stone streets, collecting trash, recycled paper products, and food waste in orderly succession. The garbage crews – all wearing brash orange neon work suits, making them look like astronauts preparing for a mission – silently move in concert to quickly empty the many trash bins perched haphazardly on the sidewalks.

Now and then, a bus slides by, the bark of their diesel engines muffled by the mist and gloom, carrying passengers more asleep than awake to the university (which employs 18% of Heidelberg’s residents) or to one of the town’s many hotels, eateries, and shops (as the hospitality industry employs 81.8% of the population).

Heidelberg is so pristine, its ancient visage perfectly preserved, thanks in large measure to its very lack of heavy industry. Because it has no factories and isn’t a major transportation hub, the Allies didn’t bomb it into rubble during World War II – a fate visited on the city of Mannheim, just down the road. Few tractor trailers come here to Heidelberg, for its streets are too narrow – here, the medium- and light-duty truck hold sway, puttering away at their tasks, taken for granted by the people they serve.

The wind picks up slightly and I feel the mist beginning to coalesce into raindrops. I cinch my jacket a little tighter, turn, and duck back inside the warm lobby of the Ritter — leaving this city and its trucks to search for a warm cup of coffee.

“Took a shot to the chin. Looks like it’s hard to win. In this do or die situation.” –from the song “Hang Tough” by Tesla.

Here we go: the bad economic news is starting to pile up now, much the way a tidal wave slowly gains momentum and force as it heads towards land.

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, presented his market outlook before members of Congress this morning and pretty much everything he said points to inflation and a possible economic recession for the U.S. in the months ahead. While everyone in trucking knows it’s bad out there, it makes it all the more grimmer when the top money man in Washington D.C. backs that feeling up with stark facts.

Bernanke said that while the U.S. economy performed reasonably well over the last two quarters, with real gross domestic product (GDP) growing at an average pace of nearly 4%, the ongoing trouble in the housing market coupled to skyrocketing oil prices doesn’t bode well for the near term.

“In particular, prices of crude oil and other commodities had increased sharply in recent weeks,” he said [they topped $97 a barrel today]. “And the foreign exchange value of the dollar had weakened. These factors [are] likely to increase overall inflation in the short run and, should inflation expectations become unmoored, have the potential to boost inflation in the longer run as well.”

That’s putting it mildly: in downtown Washington D.C. today, diesel fuel prices reached $3.55 per gallon – and we’re only at the beginning of the fuel price run-up here. Winter hasn’t really set in yet, so when it does, the corresponding jump in home heating oil demand is going to make things at lot more expensive at the pump.

The meltdown in the housing market continues aggravating things as well – especially in terms of drying up credit, which is the lifeblood of any business. “The economic outlook has been importantly affected by recent developments in financial markets, which have come under significant pressure in the past few months,” Bernanke said.

“The financial turmoil was triggered by investor concerns about the credit quality of mortgages, especially sub-prime mortgages with adjustable interest rates,” he noted. “The continuing increase in the rate of serious delinquencies for such mortgages reflects in part a decline in underwriting standards in recent years as well as softening house prices. Delinquencies on these mortgages are likely to rise further in coming quarters as a sizable number of recent-vintage sub-prime loans experience their first interest rate resets.”

In the area of business credit, investors are shying away from financing leveraged buyouts and from purchasing speculative-grade corporate bonds. And some larger banks, concerned about potentially large and difficult-to-predict draws on their liquidity and balance sheet capacity, are less willing to provide funding to their customers or to each other, he said.

“To be sure, the recent developments may well lead to a healthier financial system in the medium to long term,” Bernanke added on a positive note. “Investors have also become more cautious and are demanding greater compensation for bearing risk. In the short term, however, these events do imply a greater measure of financial restraint on economic growth as credit becomes more expensive and difficult to obtain.”

In short, it’s looking like the rough times are going to stretch out even longer than previously thought, though I for one am hoping things settle down soon. It’s that or start busing my kids to school by bike.

“Voting is one of the few things where boycotting in protest clearly makes the problem worse rather than better.” –Jane Auer, novelist and playwright, who wrote under the name Jane Bowles.

You really can’t beat Jane Auer’s words when we talk about why voting matters — something much of our country will be doing tomorrow. You’ve got to get out there and vote … period. For those of you who say your vote doesn’t matter, need I remind you that the last two presidential elections were decided by less than 100,000 votes — the equivalent of one county. In short, your vote DOES matter, it DOES count, and you DO decide who governs us all … even if you do NOT vote, for even by sitting on the sidelines you change the election dynamic.

You’ll hear all the usual stories tomorrow as well, from about how less than 40% of the general population votes to how some disreputible campaigns pay people NOT to vote, trying to supress demographics that migh tfavor their candidate’s opponent. Listen, ignore all that — go and vote. It’s free, it’s what makes our society work, and it doesn’t take too much of your time.

If you’re a driver and can’t get home in time, you should have voted by absentee ballot. For those drivers that say it takes too much time to do so, I remind you of this: there are three MILLION commerical driver license holders in this country, a rather sizable population. If drivers as a group rally around a candidate or two, you very well may change election dynamics. And find that politicians might start listening to your concerns and needs for once.

If you are an executive, you should find ways to make it easy for everyone in the company to vote: help drivers get absentee ballots, make sure people’s work schedules can be modified so they can go to the polls in the morning, afternoon, at night, whenever. And lead by example — encourage them to vote, but try to leave your personal leanings out of it. My parish priest encouraged the whole congregation to vote last weekend … and did not breathe one word of the Catholic Church’s position on any of the issues. He simply said it’s our duty and moral obligation to vote as a way to improve the common good — that’s all. You can do the same: and I’ll bet your workers will take a whole new view of you as a person by doing so.

The horrific and tragic and I-5 tunnel pile up in California back on October 12 paints a stark black and white picture about the safety of this highway networks in this country.

All due respect to CalTrans — California’s Department of Transportation — this particular tunnel has been a problem for a long time. Truckers interviewed right after the crash — which involved 30 commercial trucks (THIRTY!!!) and countless lighter vehicles — said this tunnel was a major worry for them, as it sloped down and came upon a blind left turn: at once creating the conditions where a fully loaded truck is going to roll forward faster, yet at the same time putting said truck in a dangerous spot, one where it might have to brake quickly due to traffic congestion.

I got to talk to several truckers who phoned in during my weekly appareance on Sirius Satellite Radio’s program ‘The Loading Dock’ and those that had driven in that tunnel — including Prime Inc.’s one and only ‘Mustang’ — added that even a hint of rain made that tunnel’s downward slope ‘like ice,’ making a bad driving situation that much worse. Though 45 mph is the posted speed limit for the tunnel, drivers calling into the program said many times they’d been passed by cars pushing 70 mph heading down into that dark abyss: not what you would call a good thing.

As of this writing, three people lost their lives in this terrible accident — with 10 lucky folks barely getting out of there before a blaze ignited by gasoline, diesel and lord knows what else created a 1,400 inferno within the tunnel. Fire reportedly streaked 400 feet in the air from the mouth of the tunnel — proof that this was truly a catastrophic crash.

So what to do? What can we learn from this tragedy so it never happens again? For starters, truckers complained about poor lighting within the tunnel itself. That’s pretty easy to clear up. Second, how about electronic signs on those blind corners, warning folks to slow down if traffic is stopped ahead? Heck, if we can fund red light cameras across this country, we damn sure can afford warning signs in tunnels to prevent crashes like this.

And again speed is a factor — slowing down both cars and trucks is a must in highway tunnels, especially as there’s little room to manuever within them if something goes wrong. One trucker suggested an old tried but true standby — put some empty police cars in there, complete with dummies dressed as highway patrol officers. That bit of fakery works like magic in terms of slowing traffic down — especially if, every now and then, a REAL officer gets in there and makes some traffic stops. It’s a cheap, simple, yet effective way to slow things down.

One thing is for certain — our highways are getting much more dangerous. The highway bridge collapse in Minnesota earlier this year, followed by this tunnel crash and firein California, should erase any doubts that driving can taken for granted. It can be dangerous, even fatal — something all truckers, as they must drive out there every day, know all too well.

“Are they the lucky ones [the dead]? That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it? We’re a long way from home. We’ve jumped way beyond the red line, into un-chartered space. Limited supplies, limited fuel. No allies, and now, no hope? Maybe it would have been better for us to have died quickly … instead of dying out here slowly, in the emptiness of dark space.” –Commander (later Admiral) William Adama.

The above comes from a terrific scene at the end of the first episode of the now-famous “Battlestar Galactica” series on the Sci Fi Channel, now (sadly) entering its fourth and last season. It’s a moment where the remnants of the human race are fleeing their homeworlds, laid waste by the Cylons — a race of robots originally created by mankind to be servants. It’s a point where Adama (played by the awesome award-winning actor Edward James Olmos) is trying to rally the survivors, addressing their fears head-on — without any sugar coating — so they will pay attention when he lays out his vision for their shared future.

(Right now, Jim McNamara at Volvo Trucks North America is no doubt rolling his eyes at all this, as he dealt with this kind of stuff when we worked together as reporters back in the day. Sorry Jim — it’s yet ANOTHER sci-fi rant!)

What I like so much about this scene — and all the episodes that follow — is that you get than intense sense of heroism at the last stand, a firmness of character (and no one portrays it better than the raspy-voiced Olmos) that’s unwilling to give up, even in the face of overwhelming odds. And it’s not all about space battles and such; much of the show dwells on how the main characters deal with the bitter little things that still go on despite the dark days they plow through — thieving, lying, jealousy, hatreds, whining, etc. All of that still goes on — as it does in real life — and creates a lot of drag on Adama’s efforts to save humanity.

And the lead characters — Adama included — are all very far from perfect. His first officer (XO) is a crabby drunk, his son Lee has an ego a mile wide and is actually put in jail by his father for a time, and the civilian president frequently clashes head-on with Adama’s military judgement. The vice president, Gaius Baltar, is probably the worst of the lot — a genius scientist who is secretly a Cylon collaborator. (Talk about juicy plot lines!) Yet through it all, Adama is resolute — despite being outgunned and infiltrated by human clones grown by the Cylons, he keeps pushing forward, keeps focused on saving what’s left of mankind.

A lot of that bears closely to what trucking must deal with today — the struggles with driver pay, hours of service rules, wait time, shortage of drivers, cost of fuel, cost of equipment, etc. — against the backdrop of our ultimate fear: terrorism by truck. It comes and goes as a lead issue, but it’s always there — a frightening five-ton elephant lurking in the room. Truckers rightly fear a hijacking-turned-suicide attack, but the potential for that scenario is much smaller than what I call the Tim McVeigh option: rent or buy a cheap truck and turn it into a rolling bomb in the privacy of your own home.

McVeigh, as you may remember, was a decorated former U.S. soldier whose twisted racist philosophies convinced him and others to pack a Ryder rental truck full of agricultural chemicals, then detonate it next to the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 — killing 168 people, including many children in a day care center located within the structure. Executed June 11, 2001 (eerily three months to the day before the Sept. 11 attacks), McVeigh’s actions still cast a long shadow: a homegrown terrorist (and a bronze-star winner to boot) committing one of the worst crimes in our nation’s history against his fellow citizens.

And he used a truck to do it, don’t forget that. I remember talking with Larry Strawhorn, the former vice president of engineering at the American Trucking Association, about the potential to hijack trucks and use them as weapons of mass destruction. I vividly remember Strawhorn’s answer: “Oh, heck, terrorists don’t need to hijack a truck. That’s too much work! They can just pay cash for some cheap second- or third-hand tractor and trailer and turn it into a bomb on an old farm somewhere.” That blunt analysis still haunts me.

So despite the everyday issues the trucking industry must deal with, we can’t forget about the big one — terrorism. And while we must remain watchful despite the daily tribulations on our plate, we mustn’t give in to hopelessness and despair. Remember, too, a lot of folks had their eyes on the Sept. 11 hijackers for a long time, especially the instructors who taught them to operate big planes, who rightly were VERY suspicious of men paying cash that didn’t want to know how to take off or land jumbo jets — just fly them. We just must make sure the rigors of the day don’t overwhelm the silent warnings we may encounter some time in the future.

Thomas “Tommy” Lawlor is one of those people reporters like me love to meet. A gregarious Irish taxi driver with a colorful past, Tommy became a critical transportation linchpin during the last days of a family trip to Ireland — getting myself, my brother and father through the twisting streets of Dublin (that good nation’s capital) to the difficult Portmarnock golf course to the north of the city and back again, and eventually out to the airport for our flights home.

Driving with Tommy gave me an insight into just how important local knowledge is when navigating city streets — in this case, a city that traces its offical founding all the way back to 988 A.D. As a consequence of that ancient history, Dublin’s streets are very narrow in more than a few places, with many one-way boulevards that can confuse and frustrate the average driver if you don’t have the all-important mental map in place like Tommy does.

“You’ve got to know where you’re goin’ an’ ya have to have no fear, lad,” he told me. “Many of these streets date from medieval times, so they can be narrow and confusing.” It helps that taxi drivers get to use the bus lanes in the city, so they can avoid the long lines at Dublin’s many stoplights. It also helps to keep an eye on the weather too, as Dublin — located on the river Liffey — is only a stone’s throw from the Irish Sea and gets pummeled by rain pretty frequently.

“We had 62 days of straight rain here this summer,” Tommy said. “That makes driving interesting. You alss have to keep your eyes on the seagulls, for if you see lots of them gathering in the parks and other open spots, you know a big storm is coming in from the sea.”

It’s fascinating, too — rain or shine — to be driving next to buildings that are hundreds of years old. A village called Eblana once stood here, a place dating back to the 2nd century, until the marauding Vikings came in the 9th century and established modern day Dublin as a raiding base for their longboats. The hill on which Dublin stands provided a good defensive point as well as easy access to the river, making it an ideal base of operations for them.

Though King Henry II of England eventually drove the Vikings out in 1171, the city stayed small — peopled by only 9,000 — until the vicious Oliver Cromwell arrived in 1649, turning Dublin into a haven for protestants fleeing the religious wars in Europe.

In 1800, the Act of Union officially joining England and Ireland pushed Dublin into decline, as it suffered (as did the rest of the country) from second-class status imposed by British rule. The city later became a pitched battlefield in 1916 during the Easter Uprising, with the General Post Office being shelled by British artillery to drive out Irish rebels. The subsequent execution of those rebels changed the population’s view of those rebels, however, and it gladly became the capital of the Irish Free State in 1922 after the Irish war of independence (fought from 1919 to 1921) freed the south of Ireland from British rule.

Today, Dublin is the political, economic, and cultural capital of the Republic of Ireland, with double decker buses, commuters, freight trucks, and (yes) taxi drivers like Tommy plying its jam packed streets every day. It’s a lot more compact than the cities we are so used back here in the U.S., however, making it quite a tough place to drive — and that’s before you throw in driving on the left hand side, of course.

Still, it’s beauty and history are something to behold, even if it does make the driving more than a little challenging — which is what makes drivers like Tommy so valuable. “Once you know your way around, it’s a piece of cake,” he said. Maybe … we’ll see on my next trip back.