Fight Back – Shut Everything Down!

By James Donahue

A growing number of American truckers are seriously considering a three-day national truck strike starting next Wednesday. The idea was proposed on Facebook and within hours Facebook shut down the page after 53,000 "likes" were filed.

The almost instant reaction to the idea apparently frightened some of the very people who need to have their behinds kicked, and a nation-wide trucker’s strike for three consecutive days would certainly get some attention.

Remember about two weeks ago when thousands of motorcycles flooded Washington in a similar public protest. You don’t probably remember because the media was careful not to tell us about it. But it happened. The cyclists came from all over the country to make a proclamation of dissatisfaction about the way our elected legislators are doing their jobs and it didn’t even get mentioned on the nightly news.

But if the truckers collectively park their rigs and stop delivery of food, merchandise, mail and other essentials for three days, we can’t ignore that. It will literally bring an abrupt stop to a lot of business. And in America, where money is God, this will not go unnoticed.

The Huffington Post didn’t ignore the trucker’s planned action. In a story that ran on September 20, the Post said the participating truckers will not only be parking their rigs, but a lot of them plan to gather in Washington in front of the Capital to protest the inaction by our elected representatives. They are calling it a "Ride for the Constitution."

The truckers threaten to call in sick, park their rigs, and refuse to haul freight from October 11 to Oct. 13. They are asking consumers to "not buy or sell anything" during those three days. The call is for everyone to "stay home! Buy nothing!"

If it happens, Sean McNally, spokesman for the American Trucking Association, said a trucker strike for three days would create "significant shortages" especially for perishable items. McNally said his organization does not condone such a strike and he was confident that it probably will not happen.

We think McNally is underestimating the power of the Internet and mass communication system that exists these days among the truckers. If they get angry enough . . . and a shut-down of our government over a failure by our legislatures to do a simple thing like pass a budget for the new fiscal year starting October 1 might just make a lot of people mad . . . such a shut-down might just happen.

Sure, it will be an inconvenience for the general public. But imagine the money it would cost shippers and realtors depending on delivery of those goods. There couldn’t be a more powerful political statement sent to Washington.

It is also time for the general public to wake up to what has, or has not been going on in our nation’s capital, and in state governments as well. We believe it is due time for a grass roots rebellion at the polls, starting in 2014.

We also believe it is due time for a national Constitutional Convention and a complete overhaul of the way our government is run. There has to be a way of cleaning house at the Supreme Court, setting new rules for the House and Senate, shortening election campaigns, setting limits on costly television political advertising, and above everything else, prohibiting lobbyists and big corporate gangsters from using money to influence the way our legislators vote on issues affecting the rest of us.