It’s despicable.
It’s sickening.
It’s deplorable.
Generally, we’re speaking about the political landscape in America today.
Us (Democrats) vs. them (Republicans).
Them (Republicans) vs. us (Democrats).
We (Republicans and Democrats) know our way is the best.
The American people be damned, politicians seem to say.
They (the American people) need to listen to us.
As we write this, despite the fact that the death toll from Hurricane Florence has passed 30 and millions face the months-long daunting task of rebuilding their lives, dominating the news is the fallout of an allegation against Supreme Court associate justice nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh that he sexually abused Christine Blasey Ford at a house party while the two were high school students.
Ford says Kavanaugh groped her and she felt he was attempting to rape her.
The minute on July 9 that President Donald J. Trump introduced his nominee at a primetime news conference, it became evident that the vote following his nomination hearing before the Senate Committee would be along party lines. It was. The vote was 11-10 in the Judiciary and in the full Senate it was 51-49.
Democrats tried everything under the sun to trick Kavanaugh into saying something during the nomination process that would derail his candidacy but were unsuccessful.
Finally, as a last-ditch effort, committee ranking member Diane Feinstein of California, reached into her bag of tricks and pulled out a document that said Kavanaugh (then unnamed) had sexually abused her during that party.
What makes it so obvious that it was indeed a last-ditch effort was the fact that Feinstein had had knowledge of the alleged sexual abuse since July, but we believe held it as a trump card when it became evident that Kavanaugh would be confirmed.
Both Kavanaugh and Ford say they will testify before Congress — Kavanaugh to deny he was even at the party, Ford to say he was there — but we suspect the nomination will not have proceeded.
We bring up this “us vs. them/them vs. us” mentality from time to time because although not nearly as pervasive, there is the angst of so many professional truck drivers over the actions of the American Trucking Associations, the Truckload Carriers Association and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Many truckers feel the aforementioned organizations are out to get them and want to make it more difficult to making a living.
One of the tenants of journalism is to present both sides of any story, so we are not taking sides, here, but we firmly believe that while it may not seem like it, decisions these organizations make for the most part benefit drivers., i.e., while truckers may feel they can drive more than 11 hours, to do so would put the lives of the driver and other motorists in danger.
One of the decisions that we feel was not in the best interest of the driver is the eight straight hours in the sleeper berth, and thankfully, the ATA and TCA have gone to bat for drivers and it now appears a new split sleeper berth rule may be in the offing.
Lyndon Finney’s publishing career spans over 55 years beginning with a reporter position with the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1965. Since then he’s been a newspaper editor at the Southwest Times Record, served five years as assistant managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock and from November 2004 through December 2019 served as editor of The Trucker. Between newspaper jobs he spent 14 years as director of communications at Baptist Health, Arkansas’ largest healthcare system. In addition to his publishing career he served for 46 years as organist at Little Rock’s largest Baptist church.
