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G-P: the preventable loss
Monday, March 20, 2006 8:00 AM EST
To the Editor:
The recent closure of Gaylord's Georgia-Pacific (G-P) plant is similar to the plight of many small towns across America. The doors have closed; people are displaced and lives forever changed.
This was not some news clip about a distant factory in Oregon, but the very place we call home. The place we pray; the place we raise our children; the place we hope to enjoy our golden years.
It's easy to understand the emotional burden carried by those who have lost their jobs. What is not so easy to understand is the blame.
The recent closure of Gaylord's Georgia-Pacific (G-P) plant is similar to the plight of many small towns across America. The doors have closed; people are displaced and lives forever changed.
This was not some news clip about a distant factory in Oregon, but the very place we call home. The place we pray; the place we raise our children; the place we hope to enjoy our golden years.
It's easy to understand the emotional burden carried by those who have lost their jobs. What is not so easy to understand is the blame.
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This is not an issue that resides solely in Gaylord, but one that drives today's America. We as Americans have lost our fight. In today's America we blame our government, which we freely elected; we blame the foreign companies from which we purchase our discounted goods; and we blame “Big Business” when our jobs leave American soil.
When are we as Americans going to stop blaming others and start fighting for ourselves?
In 1981 a company in Wisconsin was about to close its plant that had been in operation more than 78 years. After being purchased by a large company in the '70s, it was determined the product could not be built in America due, in part, to the highly competitive foreign market and superior quality foreign-built products.
These Americans had fight. They did not have the knowledge to run a plant of that size, but they found it. They did not have the money to purchase the plant, but found it. These Americans refused to believe they could not build a product of such high quality, and they built products of even higher quality than their foreign competitors.
This was the fight of Americans. There was no blame, and no stopping them; there was action.
Few people remember a company named AMF, but many know them as one of America's greatest employee-owned companies - Harley Davidson.
Let's get beyond the blame and start fighting to put this country back together, because that is what we as Americans do best.
David M. Bennett
Otsego Lake Twp.
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When are we as Americans going to stop blaming others and start fighting for ourselves?
In 1981 a company in Wisconsin was about to close its plant that had been in operation more than 78 years. After being purchased by a large company in the '70s, it was determined the product could not be built in America due, in part, to the highly competitive foreign market and superior quality foreign-built products.
These Americans had fight. They did not have the knowledge to run a plant of that size, but they found it. They did not have the money to purchase the plant, but found it. These Americans refused to believe they could not build a product of such high quality, and they built products of even higher quality than their foreign competitors.
This was the fight of Americans. There was no blame, and no stopping them; there was action.
Few people remember a company named AMF, but many know them as one of America's greatest employee-owned companies - Harley Davidson.
Let's get beyond the blame and start fighting to put this country back together, because that is what we as Americans do best.
David M. Bennett
Otsego Lake Twp.
Subscribe to the Herald Times
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