Truckers Are Going to Washington and I'm Worried (Read their Press Release Here)

Truck drivers are a different breed, and I can say that because my dad used to drive a truck, long ago.  So when I heard about all these truckers deciding they were going to have their own march on the nation's capital - just like the motorcycle folk did a while ago - I thought, well that's exciting.

I pictured all these 18-wheelers rumbling from all parts of the country, gathering together somewhere near Virginia or something and then parading into Washington, D.C., with horns blaring.  (Who hasn't driven up to a trucker and asked him to toot that loud horn?  I remember doing that in high school, driving along while my friend Cindy signaled from the passenger side window, her long blonde hair blowing in the wind.)

Truckers know their own mind and they're an independent bunch.  When I heard that someone was saying that they were going to "arrest" some of the politicians, I thought it was the trucker version of spin, just getting things all fired up.  (This was confirmed by the Washington Post.)

Then Twitter cancelled their account, I can't get into their website, and there's all this jabber online about how these folk are troublemakers coming to town without a welcome mat.

Read their press release here.  Their new Facebook page is still going strong, last I heard. (Their first Facebook page was deleted by Facebook.)

I'm all for people standing up for what they believe in, and the Constitution does start out with those three little words, "We the People."  So if a big bunch of truck drivers want to go to the nation's capitol to have their say on things, that's fine with me.

Here's the thing.

Things appear to be very, very tense with all sorts of law enforcement agencies right now.  There was the shooting of the single mom who was driving around near the Capitol with her baby and no gun in a very risky way last week.  There was the story today about the seniors who were kept under armed guard at the Old Faithful Inn at Yosemite National Park -- the tourists from Japan thought they had been arrested.   You get the idea.

It's tough to be a cop, and I respect what they have to do.  During my years representing kids in Child Protective Services cases, I came to see things that made me respect law enforcement all the more.

It's tough being a truck driver, too.  Long hours on the road, pressure to meet deadlines, the new HOS rules and all those new regulations -- no one got rich being a trucker, and it's a dangerous job in its own right.

So I'm praying that these truckers and these police officers don't clash physically and that no one gets hurt when all those big rigs start rumbling down the Beltway. Because they ARE coming.  

Seriously, I'm praying for the safety of everyone there because I'm worried it is going to be somewhat of a powder keg.  And if you want to pray too, I think that would be great.

May God bless America - the land of the free, and the home of the brave.  Now more than ever.



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