Letters to the Editor: Beyond Duty’s Call, Dear Mr. President

These Letters to the Editor appear in the Oct. 20 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Beyond Duty’s Call

I am sending this in reference to one of my drivers, Phil Glover. A few days after Hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana, we were lucky enough to lease him. We were affected by that hurricane and suffered damage to our terminal. We put him to work right away moving generators around for Entech out of Garland, Texas.

Then here comes Hurricane Ike, which hit Texas hardest. Phil was asked to wait at the TA Truck Stop on Interstate 10 in Lafayette, La., for another truck to drop off a generator he was to carry to Bayshore Medical Center in Houston and stay with it until he was told he was released or the generator was released. He got to Houston, got in place with this generator and figured the storm was going to be a rough one, so he got what he needed to rough it out and began his wait.

I called to check on Phil around 8 a.m. and got no answer. I tried again around noon and again got no answer. I tried around 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. and still no answer. I was starting to worry. Finally, at 8 p.m., Phil called in to say he was all right. He began to tell me what was going on and what he had done.

He said when the wind picked up, the fuel truck for the generators and the pumping station arrived and parked across the street from him. Phil went into his sleeper to watch the news and weather. He said his truck was rocking from the wind, and the rain was getting pretty bad.

About midnight, it was really bad and he could not see the fuel truck across the street from him any longer. He said he knew the driver was to make rounds at certain times, and in his mind, it was past time. So he opened his door and went outside. He said the water was rising and soon would be in the hospital, so he started digging trash out of the drains so they would be clear. Then he started digging trenches alongside the drains to give the water more of an area to flow and not get into the hospital.

The fuel truck still had not moved, and it was way past time for the driver to do his job. Thinking the driver was asleep in the cab, Phil ran over to the truck and banged on the door and got no response. He opened the door and found the day cab empty. The driver had abandoned the truck and the load.

The keys were in the truck, so Phil got in, made the rounds and fueled up the generators and the pumping station just like it was his job, and when that was done, he went back to trying to keep water out of the hospital.

He said he helped in the emergency room and in every department where he was needed and asked to help. He helped with the sick, injured, the elderly and the ones who were just downright scared — all the while watching the water and worried about it getting into the hospital.

Phil still did the fuel rounds, along with everything else he could think of doing. He kept at this from sometime Friday night until Sunday, when the people at the hospital made him go lie down and rest.

[At this writing,] it will be a week that Phil is there and Bayshore Medical Center does have power, but they requested that he stay, just in case the power went out again. He is not just sitting there in his truck.

They have formed a makeshift gas station for the hospital personnel and the doctors, and at the end of every shift, Phil is out there pumping gas into their vehicles so they can come and go from the hospital.

I asked Phil if he wanted a break from it all. He said he was not leaving until he knew all would be OK at the hospital. He said he could not just sit there watching this disaster happen and not help. I asked him if anyone had asked him to help, and he just sort of chuckled and said, “No, ma’am. I could not do anything else but what I did.”

This is a man we want to keep around.

Francine Cole-Templeton

Venture Transport Logistics

Terminal Owner/Manager

Terminal No. 179

Youngsville, La.

Dear Mr. President

An open letter to President Bush:

Your critics have called your administration and presidency among the worst, if not the worst, in the history of our great country. They have concluded the combination of the cost and disappointing consequences of the war in Iraq and the turmoil in the financial markets are the results of your administration’s poor judgment and gross mismanagement.

You and your administration need a strategy that is more than a “bailout” or “rescue.” (I recognize that the $700 billion bailout plan has been agreed to by Congress and signed by you.) The problem in the credit and financial markets is not at the bank level. The creditworthiness of the banks is only a symptom of the problem. The cause of the problem is that mortgagees’ disposable income is being reduced by the high cost of energy, resulting in their loss of available funds to pay the mortgage. That renders mortgages “nonperforming” and thus impairs the assets of the banks, leading to their insolvency and demise.

Martin Feldstein, a Harvard professor and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Reagan, wrote in the Oct. 4-5 issues of the Wall Street Journal that there are “10 million homes with mortgages that exceed the value of the house.” Dividing the $700 billion rescue by the 10 million homes, one concludes that each homeowner needs $70,000 more equity. Spreading that $70,000 over a period of time, say 20 years, results in $300 per month — the amount of money these homeowners are under water in their mortgages.

Your “rescue” plan pays $700 billion upfront to financial institutions. A better way is to devise a procedure to make a payment on behalf of each homeowner of $300 a month so mortgage payments can be satisfied. Index these payments to the price of oil. As the price of oil declines, the $300 government obligation will decline. Wrap this plan into a strategy for energy independence that focuses on reducing the price of oil now, with the ultimate goal of energy independence based on nuclear power and renewables.

So you need a plan to reduce the price of oil. Here it is: Pump oil out of Iraq.

Consider the following:

• Iraq produces about 2 million barrels per day.

• Iraq has the potential to produce 7.5 million barrels per day.

• Ramping up production to 7.5 million barrels per day is easier to do in Iraq than anywhere else in the world, because the reservoir depths, permeability and porosity may be the best in the world.

• Iraq has 112 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.

n The incremental production of 5.5 million barrels per day is a 6% increase in world oil production.

• A Cato Institute study concluded a 1% change in production will result in a 10% change in price. Thus, a 6% change in production will result in a 60% decrease in the price of oil. At the price of oil at this writing, which is $85, its price would decrease to about $35.

The benefits of this plan:

As the price of oil decreases, the $300 payment would decrease. This, together with an increase in disposable income — especially in the middle to lower socioeconomic levels — would stabilize the mortgagees’ financial condition. As a result, they would stay in their homes and the banks’ balance sheets would be restored, allowing them to lend. The United States and world economies would be revived.

With decreasing oil prices, energy-militant Iran and terrorist supporters would be weakened. Russia’s bravado would be deflated.

Mr. President, to your credit, your initiatives in Iraq now give the United States an opportunity not only to solve the economic crisis gripping our nation but also cripple terrorist activities. This plan may not put you on Mount Rushmore, but it will get you high fives on Main Street.

John Simourian

Chairman

Lily Transportation

Needham, Mass.