Wise Up!

 

Activism

By David Bruce
Athens NEWS Contributor
May 19, 2008

• In early 2008, truck drivers protested $4-per-gallon diesel fuel costs by slowing down or blocking freeway traffic. For example, on the New Jersey Turnpike, trucks crawled along at 20 miles per hour. Near Chicago, they drove with three trucks side by side by side to block traffic, and then they slowed down — way down. Similar slow-downs occurred elsewhere in the United States. Many of these activists are owner-operators who can't make a profit when diesel fuel costs $4 per gallon. Some of them can't make the payments on their trucks, which are foreclosed by the banks.

Maine trucker Donald Hayden lost three trucks when Daimler-Chrysler repossessed them. To make a point, he surrendered the trucks publicly so that other people would know what is happening: He parked them in front of the statehouse in Augusta, Maine, because as he points out, "Repossession is something people don't usually see." The Daimler-Chrysler representative repossessing the trucks said, "I don't see why you couldn't make the payments."  Mr. Hayden replied, "See, I have to pay for fuel and food, and I've eaten too many meals in my life to give that up."

Author Barbara Ehrenreich thinks that making repossession public is a good idea, as it makes people aware of what is going on. In her blog, she writes, "Suppose homeowners were to start making their foreclosures into public events — inviting the neighbors and the press, at least getting someone to camcord the children sitting disconsolately on the steps and the furniture spread out on the lawn. Maybe, for a nice dramatic touch, have the neighbors shower the bankers, when they arrive, with dollar bills and loose change, since those bankers never can seem to get enough."

- more -