12ozProphet

i hate to essentially re-post this from michael over at a continuous lean, but i really believe strongly that as many people need to hear about this documentary as possible.

“the last truck”, which originally aired on HBO, is the story of the final days of the GM plant in dayton, ohio. it is a passionate and extremely bare bones look at the emotions behind the thousands of individuals whose lives are forever changed by the closing of the doors of that plant.

sure there is blame on all sides - the auto industry in general being the easy target. people like to blame the union workers for their supposed “overcompensation”, and i was glad to see that conversation brought up in this. the wages of those workers are an unfair focus that was brought out in all this. my grandfather worked for the wisconsin electric company for 40 years. my grandmother worked for w.a. krueger priunting for about 20 years or so. my dad worked in shipping and recieving at a printing company which changed names multiple times over the 80’s through ownership changes and is now housed under quebecor world. a few of my other family members (rick, richy, curtis) also work in printing which is a huge industry in wisconsin, and has obviously seen better days. these people at GM and people like my family members i mentioned had jobs that will/may no longer exist in ours and our childrens time due to wide scale globalization and a loss of respect for skilled laborors producing work in our country and for our country. i hope if there is anything we learn from all this it is to scale that back a bit and pay attention to our people more. im not saying i have remorse for the auto industry and the multitude of ways they spent this last century interfering with the development of mass transit amongst their many other evils, but i DO have remorse for these people who loved what they created by their own hands, like any other artisan. culture needs to progress to keep up with modern environmental needs and digital needs in how we take in media, but i think it is our responsibility to support that with local production and reinvestment in our community as a whole.

buy american. produce american. grow american. support american made products. support companies that support american made products. being patriotic doesn’t have to mean living in opposition of other countries/cultures - to me it means just being cognizant of the people that weave together the local fabric around you and having a respect for that.

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part5