2 weeks Ago By Gary Emineth
In America, next to liberty and freedom, commerce is king, and nothing happens in the U.S. without the moving of products.
This happens predominately in America with trucks (18-wheelers). These past nine days my wife and I drove 2,600 miles to two trade shows, and in between the trade shows drove an additional 800 miles to see our son, daughter-in-law and grandkids. The month prior we drove 3,200 miles to Arizona to see our other son and daughter-in-law to welcome into the world our third grandchild.
During these trips we had good roads and some bad roads. I am sure if we saw one semi-tractor trailer, we saw 10,000. While there were times, I wanted to whisper under my breath some not so pleasant comments when the trucker pulled out in front of me up a steep hill, I recognized that was another human being in that truck delivering some goods to some part of America.
A former boss of mine used to say, “nothing happens until someone sells something.” I would add that nothing really happens until that sold product is delivered. America lives and dies by the delivery of those goods to some merchant, manufacturer, distributor or end user.
As we traveled across America, I couldn’t help but think of the mothers of a trucker praying that their son or daughter gets home safely from that trip. While I drove many miles in those two trips, truckers do that every week, every month, every year. Whether it is fresh produce from California, steel to a manufacturing plant, gasoline to a fueling station, water to a frack site or wheat from a field to an elevator, we as Americans or North Dakotans would not have food to eat, gas to drive or products to sell if that trucker didn’t deliver the goods.
We live and die by that trucker traversing across this great land we call America. It is a difficult job on bad roads, in heavy traffic, or just windy weather. They have a tough job.
They are away from their family making America work! These unsung heroes allow us to live the life that we have come to expect. It is the heart and soul of America. A recent high school classmate of mine, who is a trucker, called on a Sunday morning to tell us that while he is driving down the road he is praying for our family.
Remarkable! While we spend time to thank our soldiers, law enforcement and fireman, (which of course is well deserved and appropriate),may I suggest that you take time out of your day to offer up a prayer for them and their families along with a simple “Thank You.” I have decided that when I am driving down the road and I see one of those truckers to not only say thank you when I see them in the travel center but to offer up a brief prayer that they make it to their destination and back home safely..
