Dear Emma,
Hope you are doing alright. Thank God, we live in a country that lets you express your FREE SPEECH. If the worst thing in my life was that I missed a shower I would feel pretty good!
I can tell you there are a lot worse things in the Trucking Industry. The worst thing in the Industry that I can think of is lack of money. I raised my children driving 3500 to 5000 miles a week and was never brought above the poverty line.
Then the driver pool is so small that companies have to hire anything that resembles a warm body to operate a hundred thousand dollar rig with a hundred thousand dollars to five hundred thousand dollars worth of merchandise safely down our highways, and just hope what they just hired is at least honest.
A good mechanic should be the ones operating our trucks, but why should he when he can stay home and make a larger amount of money with out the expense or hassle of the highway.
If you noticed I underlined good in the previous paragraph because I did not mean someone that fixes flats or does lube work. I meant someone that knows every integral detail of motors, transmissions, rear ends, and every detail of the air and electrical systems. Someone with that knowledge might make it, but he ain’t working that cheap.
No one ever told me how many miles to run or how many hours I could or couldn’t work. But I knew how much money I needed every week and I was willing to run hard enough to make it. There is an old saying in trucking that someone a little hungry will always work harder. That is why I say the biggest sin in trucking is lack of money.
When I wasn’t trucking I did hard labor work because of my lack of education that was all I was qualified for and I’ll tell you I’d rather have the worst driving job in America than do labor. Talk about not having any constitutional rights or any other rights labor is it! And not one of you educated people ever say a word about that because you know deep inside that if it wasn’t for people who do that kind of work the great American way would be no MORE! I just thank God for giving me an occupation other than the hell of hard labor.
I noticed in your papers that you pulled off the liberal view of the war. But I don’t know who all the stats are supposed to impress unless you have never read about other wars. In WWII there were a hundred million casualties. In our own civil war there were at least one million, so excuse me if I think a hundred thousand is a bit trivial. That is pretty much the attitude west of I-35. You know red necks, red states and proud we live in a Federalism where we don’t have to agree with NYC.
Emma I love you but through my eyes, you have a very narrow view of everything. I wrote a little ditty, I’ll write some of it.
(Poem by CD Beverage)
Bigger is better, bigger is better
that is why I extended my peter
bilt frame so long it looks insane
Bigger is better, bigger is better
that is why I extended my Peter
bilt hood so when I drive I’ll look so good
Bigger is better, bigger is better
that is why I made my peter
bilt sleeper a little more wide and
a lot more deeper yea, bigger is better
Love always,
You’re brother
CD Beverage
Good Prayer
May God Bless America and continue to give Bush the fortitude to lead this great nation in the RIGHT direction.
P.S. I am not trying to piss you off just trying to keep you grounded.
CD
from the desk of
Caroline Emma Beverage
www.emmabeverage.blogspot.com • emmabeverage@yahoo.com
Where is the
FREEDOM?
This is my exercise in FREEDOM of speech / press.
September 18, 2005
Dear CD and Family,
I was happy to hear from you. I trust that you and your family are doing well. I am doing very well now too. Thanks to my government, for finally stepping in and saving my rear, after years of letting my bosses get by with their exploitation, prejudice and discrimination.
I too, Thank Goddess that I live in a country that “claims” to guarantee FREEDOM OF SPEECH! The repercussions that I have endured for actually practicing my right to Free Speech makes me wonder at just how genuine that promise actually is. My exercise in Freedom of Speech is exactly why I am not driving a truck today! Losing my career for trying to exercise my Freedom of Speech does not make it feel like I have Freedom of Speech. I do know that I have the constitutional right to Free Speech and I will not allow bullies to intimidate me into not exercising that right. I know that if I allow myself to be intimidated into not exercising my rights, then I really do not have my rights.
What I fail to understand are the people who are being treated just as badly as I have been treated and they do the work of oppressing me for corporate America. These people behave badly and try to ridicule me for speaking up. Do they really believe that the rich who control this country are going to toss them an extra bone for silencing me?
It reminds me of the Karen Silkwood story. She tried to stand up to The Big Corporation and her co-workers, instead of having sense enough to work with her, they helped the big boys harass her. Perhaps they were afraid of losing their good jobs. Who knows why people do not have the courage to stand up for their rights. At any rate, after Karen Silkwood was killed in a mysterious car accident the Big Corporation shut down the plant in that small town and all those people lost their good jobs anyway. In my opinion, nobody has anything to gain by not having the courage to stand up for what is right!
If our country denies it’s own citizens their constitutional rights, what are we doing invading other countries and claiming that we are bringing Freedom to them. How can we bring Freedom to another country if we do not really have Freedom here?
Your letter baffles me. I find it hard to understand when poor people support the party that backs big business no matter how badly big business exploits poor people. Big business has a long and dirty history when it comes to the working poor. Of course, the Democrats aren’t much better. Both parties have as part of their platform the pledge to create new wealth, not just redistribute wealth. Being poor I don’t know much about creating wealth but one of the things that I have studied is that invading other countries has long been a method countries use to create new wealth! Both parties must raise so much money to win elections that they have just about sold their souls to obtain the almighty dollar. What we really need is election reform. I say that after switching parties at the elections here in Oklahoma City this past week. After studying Politics in America in school this last semester I decided that my tiny voice might have more influence by joining forces with the lesser of two evils.
Your letter did not upset me. In fact, I am going to insert it along with my answer into my blogspot. I see it as an opportunity to attempt to educate not only you but also those who read my blogspot. At least it gives me another opportunity to share my views. I hope, in a way that will help you and others to understand what I have experienced in life and how it has shaped my views. I also hope that I can convince people that it is not worth putting a mortgage on their home so they can afford to go through an excessively expensive driving school! I might not be able to change what they do to drivers but I can expose America’s dirty little secret.
I understand when you say that the worst thing about the trucking industry is the lack of money. Trucking companies advertise everywhere that they pay fifty thousand dollars a year. I have never made fifty thousand dollars in a year in my life. In fact I suspect that I have always made less than you, simply because I was a woman in an industry that wanted to hire only young, white men. You did fit into that category. The older I got, the more experience I had, the less money I was paid. I was forced to accept twenty-seven cents a mile from companies who advertised that they were paying forty-two cents a mile.
In addition, I raised two children on my poverty level wages without the benefit of a life partner by my side to help support me. I occasionally had a partner but it was not a consistent commitment such as you have with Connie. And when the children do not biologically belong to someone it creates a different dynamic than if someone is raising their own children.
Because of my children, I was forced to try to find local work so that I could go home at least a few hours every day. Even if it was only to fall in bed for four hours of exhausted sleep before I had to get up to go back to work! I am sure that my children often felt neglected because of the excessive hours that I was forced to work, even while I was doing local work.
I also preferred to be paid by the hour because it took the whip out of the bosses hands. When a driver is paid by the mile, the boss can arrange it so that you sit for hours without making any money, waiting to be dispatched or waiting to unload your load. It cost the driver the same to live on the road whether they work or not. Trucking companies know this and “starving a driver into submission” is one of the major ways that trucking companies force drivers to conform to their expectations. Trucking companies do this on purpose. This is exactly how they “manipulate” drivers into breaking the law. Most drivers, think that it is their idea to break the law. If we were being paid properly there would not be any need for us to break the law! Trucking companies count on the drivers to not be smart enough to figure this out!
I figured this out before they started pushing us so hard that we could not take the time to shower! My education never helped me to make a better living. It has given me the ability to see through the games and manipulations that this industry uses to “train” the drivers to perform in the manner that they want them to perform. I also believe that I am more “sensitive” than the average driver. I am not trying to say I am “smarter” just more observant. Also, when you have the courage to speak out, the bullies of the world try to break you. Therefore, you get a lot of up close and personal insight into their dirty games.
I have often told drivers that I talked to on the road that if they worked the same kind of hours at McDonalds, that they work for trucking, their paycheck would look the same. To make it simple I have done the math for anyone reading this.
This is gross pay.
$5.15 times 40 hours equals $206.00.
$7.72 would be time and a half for any time over 40 hours.
I have had jobs that expected me to run 120 hours a week but I tried real hard to find jobs that would not do that, so I’ll average it to 100 hours a week. That would be 60 hours at $7.72 would equal $463.00. Add $463.00 plus $206.00 equals $669.00. Which is about as good as I ever made even when I worked 120 hours a week. Even if I figured it at the legal 70 hours a week it would be $231.60 plus $206.00 equals $437.60 which is more like the pay of my average job.
I can count the jobs I have had that ran me legal on the fingers of one hand! Some of those jobs only ran me legal because I got old enough and tired enough of what was going on that I absolutely refused to allow them to force me to run illegal. No matter how badly they harassed me! Believe you me; I have stories about that, which are almost unbelievable!
As you know, I am writing a book about my experiences. It has been an on again, off again effort because I have had so many things that come up that must take priority. At this time, my education has priority, but one day I will get back to writing my book. I have often thought that my personal journey is so unbelievable that I probably should fictionalize my story. Then last semester I read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is a story about how the happiness of the many is achieved because of the abuse of another. I thought I could have written that story about trucking! It made me realize that if I fictionalize my story everyone who reads it will be able to assign their own interpretation to it. Of course, a certain amount of that happens anyway. At least I will have the satisfaction of telling my truth! The thought that comforts me is that every time the human species evolves, the grip of the wealthy loosens and more people get a little more money and a little more freedom.
I understand when you say that the laborers of our country do not have any constitutional rights. I could not agree with you more when you say; “And not one of you educated people ever say a word about that because you know deep inside that if it wasn’t for people who do that kind of work the great American way would be no MORE!”
Please do not include me in the category of “you educated people.” I am a laborer giving voice for the laborers in this country. This is not just about me. It is about US! It is about how this great Democracy works on the backs of US! It is about how we are treated because they think that we have no voice and no one will ever know or do anything about their exploitation or the things that they do to keep us in our place forcing us to conform.
I know there are many areas that need to change in order for America to be the country that our forefathers promised us. The reason why I address the trucking industry is because that is my field of expertise. We all must work on the areas that we know the best.
I also agree with you that driving a truck is a lot better than doing hard labor. That is why I kept going back to driving. I don’t believe the boss has the right to exploit the fact that I enjoy driving. I think when I spend 100 or 120 hours a week doing something, I had better enjoy it!
I don’t agree that the driver also needs to be a mechanic. That is like trying to combine two different careers. That might be a good idea if you own your own truck. I drove long enough so that I can tell a mechanic exactly what is wrong with a truck, and that is good enough. I know that when they used to make us unload our trucks the drivers did not like that idea! They pitched such a stink about that that it forced them to stop having the drivers unload the trucks. This just proves that the power to create change is actually in the driver’s hands. I guess enough drivers don’t hate missing their showers as much as they hated doing the physical labor of unloading.
As far as the drivers being so scarce, there are several reason why I don’t really believe that. First of all the schools turn out new drivers all the time with only six weeks of practice. A lot of trucking companies train their own drivers and don't spend much more time with their training than the schools do. If they really needed drivers that bad, they would hire experienced drivers that do not have “recent” experience. They don’t do that because anyone who has reached the point of being burned out because of the inhumane conditions is not as gullible as some greenhorn that knows nothing about the industry. More telling than that is the fact that if they really needed drivers that bad they would pay decent wages. Anytime there is a high demand in any field the wages go up. They try to convince the drivers that there is a shortage of drivers as justification for pushing drivers so hard. It all boils down to big profits for someone but it isn’t the driver who benefits.
Well brother, I have enjoyed this little debate. I hope you can accept that there are areas where we do not agree. I must conclude this letter by talking about your poem, Bigger is Better. This is not a comment on the quality of your poem. I want to address the fact that it talks about one of the reasons why so many men will not speak up for their rights. It is because they think that big shiny rig makes them a big stud! If they would stop thinking with the little head and start using the One on their shoulders they would realize that they deserve to be treated like human beings. When I got tired of dealing with that “manly” attitude on the road I had a very crude answer that I used to give the drivers. I can’t say what I said here because I am going to turn this in for a grade and I am going to publish it on my blogspot. I will say that I made reference to the fact that my rig was as big as their rig and in all the years that I drove I had not noticed any private part of my body get any bigger! I was not referring to my weight.
Love you,
Emma Beverage
Hope you are doing alright. Thank God, we live in a country that lets you express your FREE SPEECH. If the worst thing in my life was that I missed a shower I would feel pretty good!
I can tell you there are a lot worse things in the Trucking Industry. The worst thing in the Industry that I can think of is lack of money. I raised my children driving 3500 to 5000 miles a week and was never brought above the poverty line.
Then the driver pool is so small that companies have to hire anything that resembles a warm body to operate a hundred thousand dollar rig with a hundred thousand dollars to five hundred thousand dollars worth of merchandise safely down our highways, and just hope what they just hired is at least honest.
A good mechanic should be the ones operating our trucks, but why should he when he can stay home and make a larger amount of money with out the expense or hassle of the highway.
If you noticed I underlined good in the previous paragraph because I did not mean someone that fixes flats or does lube work. I meant someone that knows every integral detail of motors, transmissions, rear ends, and every detail of the air and electrical systems. Someone with that knowledge might make it, but he ain’t working that cheap.
No one ever told me how many miles to run or how many hours I could or couldn’t work. But I knew how much money I needed every week and I was willing to run hard enough to make it. There is an old saying in trucking that someone a little hungry will always work harder. That is why I say the biggest sin in trucking is lack of money.
When I wasn’t trucking I did hard labor work because of my lack of education that was all I was qualified for and I’ll tell you I’d rather have the worst driving job in America than do labor. Talk about not having any constitutional rights or any other rights labor is it! And not one of you educated people ever say a word about that because you know deep inside that if it wasn’t for people who do that kind of work the great American way would be no MORE! I just thank God for giving me an occupation other than the hell of hard labor.
I noticed in your papers that you pulled off the liberal view of the war. But I don’t know who all the stats are supposed to impress unless you have never read about other wars. In WWII there were a hundred million casualties. In our own civil war there were at least one million, so excuse me if I think a hundred thousand is a bit trivial. That is pretty much the attitude west of I-35. You know red necks, red states and proud we live in a Federalism where we don’t have to agree with NYC.
Emma I love you but through my eyes, you have a very narrow view of everything. I wrote a little ditty, I’ll write some of it.
(Poem by CD Beverage)
Bigger is better, bigger is better
that is why I extended my peter
bilt frame so long it looks insane
Bigger is better, bigger is better
that is why I extended my Peter
bilt hood so when I drive I’ll look so good
Bigger is better, bigger is better
that is why I made my peter
bilt sleeper a little more wide and
a lot more deeper yea, bigger is better
Love always,
You’re brother
CD Beverage
Good Prayer
May God Bless America and continue to give Bush the fortitude to lead this great nation in the RIGHT direction.
P.S. I am not trying to piss you off just trying to keep you grounded.
CD
from the desk of
Caroline Emma Beverage
www.emmabeverage.blogspot.com • emmabeverage@yahoo.com
Where is the
FREEDOM?
This is my exercise in FREEDOM of speech / press.
September 18, 2005
Dear CD and Family,
I was happy to hear from you. I trust that you and your family are doing well. I am doing very well now too. Thanks to my government, for finally stepping in and saving my rear, after years of letting my bosses get by with their exploitation, prejudice and discrimination.
I too, Thank Goddess that I live in a country that “claims” to guarantee FREEDOM OF SPEECH! The repercussions that I have endured for actually practicing my right to Free Speech makes me wonder at just how genuine that promise actually is. My exercise in Freedom of Speech is exactly why I am not driving a truck today! Losing my career for trying to exercise my Freedom of Speech does not make it feel like I have Freedom of Speech. I do know that I have the constitutional right to Free Speech and I will not allow bullies to intimidate me into not exercising that right. I know that if I allow myself to be intimidated into not exercising my rights, then I really do not have my rights.
What I fail to understand are the people who are being treated just as badly as I have been treated and they do the work of oppressing me for corporate America. These people behave badly and try to ridicule me for speaking up. Do they really believe that the rich who control this country are going to toss them an extra bone for silencing me?
It reminds me of the Karen Silkwood story. She tried to stand up to The Big Corporation and her co-workers, instead of having sense enough to work with her, they helped the big boys harass her. Perhaps they were afraid of losing their good jobs. Who knows why people do not have the courage to stand up for their rights. At any rate, after Karen Silkwood was killed in a mysterious car accident the Big Corporation shut down the plant in that small town and all those people lost their good jobs anyway. In my opinion, nobody has anything to gain by not having the courage to stand up for what is right!
If our country denies it’s own citizens their constitutional rights, what are we doing invading other countries and claiming that we are bringing Freedom to them. How can we bring Freedom to another country if we do not really have Freedom here?
Your letter baffles me. I find it hard to understand when poor people support the party that backs big business no matter how badly big business exploits poor people. Big business has a long and dirty history when it comes to the working poor. Of course, the Democrats aren’t much better. Both parties have as part of their platform the pledge to create new wealth, not just redistribute wealth. Being poor I don’t know much about creating wealth but one of the things that I have studied is that invading other countries has long been a method countries use to create new wealth! Both parties must raise so much money to win elections that they have just about sold their souls to obtain the almighty dollar. What we really need is election reform. I say that after switching parties at the elections here in Oklahoma City this past week. After studying Politics in America in school this last semester I decided that my tiny voice might have more influence by joining forces with the lesser of two evils.
Your letter did not upset me. In fact, I am going to insert it along with my answer into my blogspot. I see it as an opportunity to attempt to educate not only you but also those who read my blogspot. At least it gives me another opportunity to share my views. I hope, in a way that will help you and others to understand what I have experienced in life and how it has shaped my views. I also hope that I can convince people that it is not worth putting a mortgage on their home so they can afford to go through an excessively expensive driving school! I might not be able to change what they do to drivers but I can expose America’s dirty little secret.
I understand when you say that the worst thing about the trucking industry is the lack of money. Trucking companies advertise everywhere that they pay fifty thousand dollars a year. I have never made fifty thousand dollars in a year in my life. In fact I suspect that I have always made less than you, simply because I was a woman in an industry that wanted to hire only young, white men. You did fit into that category. The older I got, the more experience I had, the less money I was paid. I was forced to accept twenty-seven cents a mile from companies who advertised that they were paying forty-two cents a mile.
In addition, I raised two children on my poverty level wages without the benefit of a life partner by my side to help support me. I occasionally had a partner but it was not a consistent commitment such as you have with Connie. And when the children do not biologically belong to someone it creates a different dynamic than if someone is raising their own children.
Because of my children, I was forced to try to find local work so that I could go home at least a few hours every day. Even if it was only to fall in bed for four hours of exhausted sleep before I had to get up to go back to work! I am sure that my children often felt neglected because of the excessive hours that I was forced to work, even while I was doing local work.
I also preferred to be paid by the hour because it took the whip out of the bosses hands. When a driver is paid by the mile, the boss can arrange it so that you sit for hours without making any money, waiting to be dispatched or waiting to unload your load. It cost the driver the same to live on the road whether they work or not. Trucking companies know this and “starving a driver into submission” is one of the major ways that trucking companies force drivers to conform to their expectations. Trucking companies do this on purpose. This is exactly how they “manipulate” drivers into breaking the law. Most drivers, think that it is their idea to break the law. If we were being paid properly there would not be any need for us to break the law! Trucking companies count on the drivers to not be smart enough to figure this out!
I figured this out before they started pushing us so hard that we could not take the time to shower! My education never helped me to make a better living. It has given me the ability to see through the games and manipulations that this industry uses to “train” the drivers to perform in the manner that they want them to perform. I also believe that I am more “sensitive” than the average driver. I am not trying to say I am “smarter” just more observant. Also, when you have the courage to speak out, the bullies of the world try to break you. Therefore, you get a lot of up close and personal insight into their dirty games.
I have often told drivers that I talked to on the road that if they worked the same kind of hours at McDonalds, that they work for trucking, their paycheck would look the same. To make it simple I have done the math for anyone reading this.
This is gross pay.
$5.15 times 40 hours equals $206.00.
$7.72 would be time and a half for any time over 40 hours.
I have had jobs that expected me to run 120 hours a week but I tried real hard to find jobs that would not do that, so I’ll average it to 100 hours a week. That would be 60 hours at $7.72 would equal $463.00. Add $463.00 plus $206.00 equals $669.00. Which is about as good as I ever made even when I worked 120 hours a week. Even if I figured it at the legal 70 hours a week it would be $231.60 plus $206.00 equals $437.60 which is more like the pay of my average job.
I can count the jobs I have had that ran me legal on the fingers of one hand! Some of those jobs only ran me legal because I got old enough and tired enough of what was going on that I absolutely refused to allow them to force me to run illegal. No matter how badly they harassed me! Believe you me; I have stories about that, which are almost unbelievable!
As you know, I am writing a book about my experiences. It has been an on again, off again effort because I have had so many things that come up that must take priority. At this time, my education has priority, but one day I will get back to writing my book. I have often thought that my personal journey is so unbelievable that I probably should fictionalize my story. Then last semester I read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is a story about how the happiness of the many is achieved because of the abuse of another. I thought I could have written that story about trucking! It made me realize that if I fictionalize my story everyone who reads it will be able to assign their own interpretation to it. Of course, a certain amount of that happens anyway. At least I will have the satisfaction of telling my truth! The thought that comforts me is that every time the human species evolves, the grip of the wealthy loosens and more people get a little more money and a little more freedom.
I understand when you say that the laborers of our country do not have any constitutional rights. I could not agree with you more when you say; “And not one of you educated people ever say a word about that because you know deep inside that if it wasn’t for people who do that kind of work the great American way would be no MORE!”
Please do not include me in the category of “you educated people.” I am a laborer giving voice for the laborers in this country. This is not just about me. It is about US! It is about how this great Democracy works on the backs of US! It is about how we are treated because they think that we have no voice and no one will ever know or do anything about their exploitation or the things that they do to keep us in our place forcing us to conform.
I know there are many areas that need to change in order for America to be the country that our forefathers promised us. The reason why I address the trucking industry is because that is my field of expertise. We all must work on the areas that we know the best.
I also agree with you that driving a truck is a lot better than doing hard labor. That is why I kept going back to driving. I don’t believe the boss has the right to exploit the fact that I enjoy driving. I think when I spend 100 or 120 hours a week doing something, I had better enjoy it!
I don’t agree that the driver also needs to be a mechanic. That is like trying to combine two different careers. That might be a good idea if you own your own truck. I drove long enough so that I can tell a mechanic exactly what is wrong with a truck, and that is good enough. I know that when they used to make us unload our trucks the drivers did not like that idea! They pitched such a stink about that that it forced them to stop having the drivers unload the trucks. This just proves that the power to create change is actually in the driver’s hands. I guess enough drivers don’t hate missing their showers as much as they hated doing the physical labor of unloading.
As far as the drivers being so scarce, there are several reason why I don’t really believe that. First of all the schools turn out new drivers all the time with only six weeks of practice. A lot of trucking companies train their own drivers and don't spend much more time with their training than the schools do. If they really needed drivers that bad, they would hire experienced drivers that do not have “recent” experience. They don’t do that because anyone who has reached the point of being burned out because of the inhumane conditions is not as gullible as some greenhorn that knows nothing about the industry. More telling than that is the fact that if they really needed drivers that bad they would pay decent wages. Anytime there is a high demand in any field the wages go up. They try to convince the drivers that there is a shortage of drivers as justification for pushing drivers so hard. It all boils down to big profits for someone but it isn’t the driver who benefits.
Well brother, I have enjoyed this little debate. I hope you can accept that there are areas where we do not agree. I must conclude this letter by talking about your poem, Bigger is Better. This is not a comment on the quality of your poem. I want to address the fact that it talks about one of the reasons why so many men will not speak up for their rights. It is because they think that big shiny rig makes them a big stud! If they would stop thinking with the little head and start using the One on their shoulders they would realize that they deserve to be treated like human beings. When I got tired of dealing with that “manly” attitude on the road I had a very crude answer that I used to give the drivers. I can’t say what I said here because I am going to turn this in for a grade and I am going to publish it on my blogspot. I will say that I made reference to the fact that my rig was as big as their rig and in all the years that I drove I had not noticed any private part of my body get any bigger! I was not referring to my weight.
Love you,
Emma Beverage
posted by Emma Beverage @ 1:36 PM
