Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

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Still fighting

We’re still in DC. Yesterday was a press conference, and the first day of meetings. I spoke at the press conference, then spent the majority of the afternoon in meetings with different agencies at the DOT (Department of Transportation). The slow movement toward change is excruciating. At this conference there were at least six new families. Families who have been through something similar to my family. It’s heartbreaking.

Every day I think I’ll go back to my hotel room and write a blog, describe it to all of you, perhaps get it off my heart. But I’ve been too tired. Physically and emotionally exhausted I haven’t been able to open the laptop much less begin to think about which stories to share. It’s no different this morning. My feet and head hurt already and I haven’t begun the day yet.

But I wanted you all to know we’re still here. I want the ATA to know that too.

We are at a crossroads in safety. This THURSDAY, day after tomorrow, a House committee (The T&I committee which stands for Transportation and Infrastructure) will be ‘marking up’ the Reauthorization Bill. The bill has several horrible provisions, among them letting teenagers drive interstate, hiding critical crash data from the public, continuing the rollback of the mandatory two nights of sleep after reaching certain hours of driving, and we think the 33 foot double trailers could be added to the bill at the last moment.

Pick whichever of these issues resonates with you and call your Congressperson in the House, tell the transportation legislative aide that you oppose these anti-safety provisions in the bill being marked up Thursday. Or just tell them you oppose ALL the anti-truck safety provisions that are in the Reauthorization Bill. They’ll know what you mean.

We have to get loud really fast. The Senate has already passed their version of the bill. The House bill was issued on Friday, will be marked up (which means worked on) this Thursday. We don’t know when the vote in the House will be. But it will be soon.

I’ll update you tonight when I get back from my meetings. We secured over 100 meetings in these two days. We’re busy. We’re tired. But we are not discouraged and we are not going away.

I cried when I saw dad’s picture in a DOT elevator lobby among the pictures of other people who have died in truck related crashes. Please, let’s work together so some other family doesn’t have to cry.

Thank you.


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Night lights and hope

Arlington lights

Arlington lights

I’m here in the hotel room while my husband is walking to the grocery store. I should be working on the speeches I will be giving over the weekend, but I don’t want to. So I went out on the balcony and photographed the buildings all lit up around us.

That was pretty fun.

We haven’t gone into DC yet, we’re still out in Arlington at The Truck Safety Coalition office, checking awards, printing data sheets, stuffing folders, making calls, verifying participants, making appointments, rewriting speeches and discussing session outlines. There’s a lot to do.

This will be our biggest conference ever, the most participants and the most confirmed appointments with Members and agencies on the Hill. The very important bill we’re worried about (Transportation Reauthorization Bill) is being “marked up” (worked on) this Thursday in committee, so our timing turns out to be perfect. We will be talking to Congressional staff and committee members on Monday and Tuesday; our views should be up front and center in the minds of committee members as they work on the bill Thursday.

We’ll do the best we can to convince everyone that federal law allowing 33 foot double trailers should not overrun more than 20 states that currently prohibit the longer trailers. Everywhere I go here in DC Congressional staff tell me that issues I want resolved should be decided ‘at the state level.’ And now the American Trucking Association wants the federal government to grant them permission to run their longer trailers right over state laws. And worse, many members of Congress are quite willing to do that!

So. Tonight I am tired but optimistic. And to take a break from all this truck stuff I stand on my dark balcony pointing the camera at a dazzling quilt of light. My fervent hope is that the light will finally come on in Congressional and Agency heads and hearts and that they will make decisions based on safety rather than industry profits or campaign contributions.

This time please let safety win.

Daddy

Daddy


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Working in the nation’s capitol

Sunset in Washington DC

Sunset in Washington DC

The sun is going down, glowing pink on the condos and office buildings near our hotel. I wish I was just a tourist here. I wish I was going to spend tomorrow taking pictures of monuments, going on tours, walking leisurely through Georgetown. But that’s not why I’m here this time. This time I’m here to work.

Day one preparing for this weekend’s conference is complete. Speeches written, calls made, agendas discussed and revised. Tomorrow is another day as we nail down more details.

As those of you on Facebook know, I fell while crossing the street on Sunday and scraped up my knee on one leg, twisted my ankle on the other. So I’m icing the ankle every night and hoping that by the time I need to walk to meetings on Capitol Hill I’ll be able to walk without a limp.

Such is the life of a middle-aged person not looking where she’s going. But I’ve got my eyes focused on truck safety issues as we work through this week. I look forward to the volunteers that will be arriving on Friday. I know we will be noticed. I hope our message is taken to heart by a few more politicians and that we can start to see movement toward safety in upcoming bills.

I hope you will send good thoughts our way as we begin again to climb the very big mountain in front of us.

Talk to you tomorrow, dad.

Talk to you tomorrow, dad.


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Never quit

From our 2013 conference.

From our 2013 conference.

Soon we’ll be on our way to Washington DC again. Many of you know that I volunteer with the Truck Safety Coalition, a nonprofit group that works to make changes in regulations and rules governing commercial trucks in an effort to make the roads safer for all of us. And you know that I do this because my dad was killed by a sleepy semi driver back in December of 2004.

Eleven years ago my family’s life was changed forever. It seems like a hundred years. It seems like yesterday. And for four days every other year we are immersed in it, totally focused on the issues and the emotions. We will join other families next weekend, other scarred, hurting families, other people that want their loss to mean something. You can read about our last conference in 2013 at my blog posts here, here and, if you read only one, especially here.

During our time together we are safe to express our continued grief regardless of how many years have passed. And we are able to provide support to the new families who have unwillingly joined our painful club. It’s a long, hard road we’re all on, a complicated argument, a difficult fight that we face. The odds of a group of ordinary citizens making inroads in a system influenced by campaign contributions by the American Trucking Association are low. But we’re a noisy group.

And we aren’t going to quit.

Because the people whose lives were lost, and those whose lives were forever changed, deserve to be heard. We are the voice for those that can no longer speak and we make sure they are not forgotten. In their honor we work to keep everyone safer, those of us on the road as well as the drivers of the commercial trucks.

Stay tuned.

For you dad.

For you dad.


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Another shot missed

Sunshine, crisp golden light, maple leaves turning red and gold…how could I resist grabbing the camera and the dog and heading out over the frost covered lawn to the pond across the street. The trees in my neighbor’s yard were stunning in the sunshine.

Morning glow

Morning glow

And those across their pond were beautiful as well. Katie and I moved along the road looking for a spot to capture them.

Morning calm.

Morning calm.

I was focused on catching the light and the water while standing on the dog’s leash and listening for cars when I heard a soft, short grunt off to my right. I didn’t look right then, didn’t look until there was a rush of wings and a loud squawk.

A blue heron was lifting off of a submerged tree limb about 10 yards away. He’d probably been sitting there as Katie and I got closer and closer. He gave me a warning grunt and I didn’t listen.

So this is all I got:

Flying away.

Flying away.

I’ve been trying to get a great shot of a blue heron for years. Years. And there he was standing there next to me and I never even noticed. If I had glanced over at the first grunt I think there would have been an amazing shot. But I’ll never know.

Back at home moments after Katie and I came in four young deer crossed the road we had just been standing on. I don’t have a picture of them in the morning glow either. I was too busy trying to keep Katie from flinging herself against the windows to grab the camera.

Silly us.

Missed another one Mama!

Missed another one Mama!


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Shopping thoughts

I used to like to shop. When I was younger. Thinner. Now the whole thing just seems unnecessarily stressful. But I have a few things I need to pick up in preparation for a trip out of town. Not a lot of things, but still, I need to go inside a store. And try stuff on. In front of a mirror.

Truly I don’t need the overly attentive chipper female in the size zero painted on pants asking if I need a different size. I just don’t. And the older woman at the shoe store that has no other customer and wants to find me every size 7.5 black shoe she has when I haven’t even decided if I’m seriously going to look at shoes.

But most of all when I finally pick out the couple of things I need, most of which is underwear, and patiently stand in a long line of people waiting to pay for their merchandise, why do I get the only young male cashier, standing among a line of 7 older females ringing up sales? Why is it my luck to get the obviously new young male cashier who can’t get the scanner to read the tag on the underwear and is turning all shades of red. Who has to get an elderly coworker to help him. And who calls me “Miss” throughout the long excruciating (for him) transaction.

Yep. Shopping is just too hard. I think I have enough clothes and shoes and underwear now. I shouldn’t have to do this again for a few years. And if I loose a little weight there’s a whole closet full of clothes from back in the day just waiting for me.

No sales person required.


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Sunday Morning memories

Few of you know that my favorite TV show is ‘Sunday Morning’ which airs every Sunday on CBS at 9 a.m. I usually work my Sundays around watching the show which includes pieces on art, music, sports, and politics along with bits of news and weather. They take a longer and more in depth look at many topics that I enjoy. I almost always learn about something new, or catch up on something I used to know about but had forgotten over the years. And if nothing else I love those nature minutes at the end.

So you can imagine my disappointment as 9 a.m. was approaching today, and I clicked over to my CBS station only to find football scheduled. Football? I started thinking back…was today really Sunday? I get confused now that I’m retired. Maybe today is Saturday. I checked a calendar and confirmed that I was not crazy. I flipped through the stations again, maybe I had forgotten what station my show was on? (Notice how I assume there’s something wrong with me rather than the world!) No ‘Sunday Morning.’

So I did what any typical middle aged person does in situations like this. I googled it. And I found out there’s some silly football game in London that has upstaged my show! But amazingly, CBS had not forgotten about all of us art lovers. They have available online, from their archives, the very first show that aired with Charles Kuralt back on January 28, 1979.

Sadly I am old enough to remember 1979 quite clearly, though I didn’t see the inaugural show back then, so of course I had to watch it today. Are you curious to know the contents of that first show?

Well, here you go:

There was a piece showing President Carter speaking on the Iran controversy, though they didn’t call it that back then. This was 10 months before the American hostages were taken, but the piece showed the growing tensions and the affect it was having on American politics. There was a short interview with Detroit Mayor Colman Young about the Republican National convention which was to be held in Detroit. I felt transported back in time.

There was a sports report done by Richard Threlkeld about big ten basketball. He was a regular on the show and I always enjoyed his work. Mr. Threlkeld was killed January of 2012 in a crash with an oil tankard in New York state. Knowing that as I watched him today in the 1979 piece made me sad. Sometimes it’s not good to know the future.

There was a story about Nelson Rockefeller who had died just two days prior. In the piece was a short interview with Mr. Rockefeller showcasing his modern and abstract art collection. He said he liked abstract art because, depending on your mood, you could see something different each time you looked at it, unlike a classical piece. Once you looked at those, he said, you knew what was there and you didn’t need to look again. Interesting perspective.

And there was a piece about the American bald eagle and how close it was to extinction. The focus was a fight over an oil refinery that was proposed for Eastport Maine, which is the furthest eastern town in the United States, and made entirely of islands. It also happened to be a sanctuary for bald eagles. In January of 1979 the eagles had won the fight and the refinery was not being built, even though it would mean jobs to a town on the brink of extinction itself. The story said that the town had a population of just over 2,000 which apparently was down from previous years. I looked Eastport up just now. The last census data is from 2010 and shows 1300 residents. The photos I could find don’t show any refinery. Which is good news for the bald eagles.

The cover story was about Pope John Paul on his first foreign trip. It looked very much like the recent Pope visit to the United states. The story talked about the struggle in the church over who would lead and toward what. I wonder if much has changed in the thirty-six years since.

So on a Sunday morning when my routine was disrupted I found a bit of ‘Sunday Morning’ to appease myself. And I got a trip back through time; short as it was it was long enough for me to realize life seems pretty much the same as it was back then. Similar issues. Similar struggles. Similar reactions. Though 1979 feels like a different life, a different world, really it wasn’t so very different than the life and world I see today.

And that’s oddly comforting.