10-4 Magazine October 2020

10-4 Magazine / October 2020 63 activity, especially with the older set and retirement-aged people who may not be the most experienced riders. These bikers may travel in groups of only a couple or as many as a whole club. When you do witness a gathering of riders and one pulls out on the road, assume others will, as well. They like to travel together as a unit. When possible, give them the same courtesy you hope to receive from them. Please don’t crowd these guys! If anything goes wrong and a rider goes down, they don’t stand a chance against a loaded 18-wheeler. Something as simple as a pothole or an unchained dog can be deadly to a biker. You don’t want that on your conscience for the rest of your lifetime. Tailgating or aggressive driving is reckless driving, and in the event of a fatal accident, it could end your trucking career. I think I have covered most of the hot button issues I have been thinking about lately. However, it’s October in an election year. What could that possibly mean to a truck driver? That depends on if you are eligible to vote or not. Now, hold up there, partner, don’t jump the gun and start with the political rhetoric. I don’t intend to lead you in any one direction, but rather I want all of you who are eligible to vote. This means being responsible and finding out how to exercise your constitutional right of the people to self-governance. Some of you out there in 10-4 land might be wondering, what exactly is self-governance? Simply put, it is the election of the people who will run your government. This starts at the local level and runs all the way up to the president. None of us have the right to complain about our police and the laws they are expected to enforce if we do not fully participate in the process of elections. Trucking is one of the heaviest regulated industries in America. How it got this way is simple – political power. This power allows for laws to be written and voted on not by you the individual but by our leaders. These leaders are local, federal, and state officials. As a child we were told the story of Peter and the wolf, and how a young boy who was calling out for attention by screaming “Wolf! There’s a big hungry wolf and he is going to eat me!” At first, everyone came to his rescue, but no wolf was there. He did it once more, and some people came to help scare the wolf away, but still no wolf. The third time he called out there really was a big hungry wolf, but no one came because they didn’t believe the alarm was important. Our elected political officials are much the same as that big bad wolf. We may not see them in our day to day lives, but they are still out there, waiting to feast on the general public. They may not eat you in the physical sense, but they can eat away at your liberty and restrict your potential opportunities. As free-spiritedAmericans, we thrive on our constitutional rights and the freedoms they afford us. The right to select our own leaders is essential in maintaining this way of self-governance. The most important of these are in your township officers and your city council members, who direct the local police departments and, thus, law enforcement. This has been a tough year for our policemen and women. It doesn’t matter where you stand on some of the issues that have shaped this summer’s events, it’s the political leaders who hold the cards that can make a difference. Now, I live in a small town over here in the great state of Michigan, so what makes sense to us farmers and factory workers may not be the same for the west coast office workers. That, my friends, is why we have the “Down Ballot” (with local candidates and propositions) during the presidential elections. Why is this so important to you as a driver? Because the people on your “Down Ballot” are not the same as the ones on mine (unless you are my neighbor). People, you should be researching all of the candidates running for every office. Even if you think you know their positions on the most important issues, read up on them to make sure. An informed voter is a crooked politician’s worst nightmare! When we elect the same political leaders year after year and