Posted on 03/21/2020 5:32:03 PM PDT by Hojczyk
As the Chinese coronavirus shuts down our economy and locks in our homes, we are discovering stock boys matter and Hollywood celebrities do not.
Out there in the shit, out there in the danger, out there touching countless surfaces that could be infected, out there working punishing hours for low wages are the people we too often overlook and take for granted — even though they are the ones who keep our world turning.
Away from their families, risking illness, America’s farm workers, truck drivers, grocery store workers, sanitation workers, and delivery people, are holding together the slender thread that keeps our supply chains moving, and those supply chains are the literal difference between civilization and anarchy.
Meanwhile, here’s how America’s elite, America’s royalty, America’s fabulously wealthy and fawned over are “contributing” during these serious and scary times…
e this is all over, we all know the stupid American pecking order will return; a pecking order where the working class who took all the risks and did all the dangerous grunt work to keep our civilization civilized, will at best be forgotten and taken for granted again, and at worst return to being the only class of people you can safely ridicule … because Orange Man Bad.
And those in Hollywood, who proved to be the most disposable and annoying people in the history of the world, will return to being celebrated and hailed as “brave” for silly fashion choices and standing
But at least for now, we are rid of them, and at least for now, we are reminded of how unnecessary they are.
The people who matter in this country, who really matter, who will always matter, are not scribblers like myself, and are certainly not the performers in Hollywood and the news media…
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
It is similar to using the technology of a container ship vs that of the 1950’s longshoremen who put each small box into the hold of a ship individually.
where in north philly
We need Hollywood celebrities less than we need pretty much any occupation.
Couldn’t agree more. Don’t forget the warehouse workers. Their job is tough in slow times.
I have an exemption letter for Ohio.
Does it mean I’m essential or expendable?
Give my thanks to your family for their important work. Mine look like they will all remain employed.
One is a nanny for a doctor. Another is an editorial assistant for a Christian publisher. She’s already set up to work from home. The next one is an engineer. He works at NASA flight ops for satellites. He can only go in when necessary, but again, essential. Then the trucker
I knew that!
All of Hollywood is crying now as they have discovered it is no longer the center of the universe.
I’m a grocery trucker. Can’t tell you all what a great job everyone is doing, because I’m too tired right now. What I’ve seen behind the scenes is about enough to have me dabbing my friggin eyes.
We’ve got warehousemen and mechanics voluntarily grinding out 16-hour shifts so the drivers can hook preloaded, preinspected trailers, knock the tires, check the lights, and burn rubber for the stores. Most of our drivers have volunteered to work seven days a week until this cat is stuffed back in the bag. The store stock boys are replenishing the shelves on fast forward, laughing and cracking jokes as they go. Store personnel are deep cleaning and sanitizing the stores in batshit crazy overdrive mode after hours. Everyone is primed and jazzed.
The feds lifted hours of service caps for truckers hauling emergency supplies, which includes grocery haulers. Our governor set aside the combined gross vehicle and axle weight limits on our highways statewide. They want every possible pound of food and supplies crammed into every trailer.
I got dispatched into a spring blizzard two mornings ago. Howling wind driving the snow parallel to the ground and drifting it over miles of thick sheet ice. I crept along in the small hours with my hazard blinkers on for a solid hour at one point on a skinny road with no place to pull off. They normally would have rescheduled the load, but we had two outlying small town stores to provision. Nobody has to tell us what would happen if our shelves went bare. People would panic, drive 30 minutes to the next store, double its demand, clean it out, get exposed to sickness in bigger crowds, and bring it back home to share. Nobody wants that.
Our shelves and meat cases are chock full, though everyone’s having to man the pumps to keep them that way. The people are encouraged and reassured when they see that. They can relax, smile, get two days (vs two weeks) worth of stuff, keep their proper distance, joke about the TP, and hustle back home where they belong.
The drivers and workers are owning this shit individually—and they’re killing it. Loads of well-earned “damn we’re good” pride. Nothing like this has happened in anyone’s memory. It looks like a real Love Your Neighbor situation to me.
This is the way Americans operate when there are problems to be solved. America needs to have a big party when this is over.
Check your mail.
I hope that, in the aftermath of this crisis, we have some Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs TV series) style reporting on the farm/raw material-to-the-retail-shelf supply chain to emphasize how well organized and flawlessly it usually works. And, flawlessly or not, it works 24/7/365 year in and year out because the work is never really finished.
Yet, because it is behind the scenes (and it is meant to be that way), we don’t appreciate the thought, experience, inventiveness, plain hard work, and dedication required to put product on the shelves. The focus is now on food and household consumables, but the same behind-the-scenes effort and dedication applies to every field of activity in modern society.
It is a real marvel of continuous human cooperation to achieve universally recognized worthwhile goals that we can see all around us if we will just open our eyes a little wider.
Cooperation, not conflict, is the real genius of humanity.
“ Having been a stock boy in my younger days I know how hard they work. Hollywood is a total waste of my time. I only wish more people thought that way. Movies..... 3 hours of my life I’ll never get back.... waste of time. Most of those people could walk up to my door and I would have no idea who they were.”
My sentiments exactly.
> I have an exemption letter for Ohio.
> Does it mean I’m essential or expendable?
maybe neither, if you actually are in the hoosier state :-)
I must remember that one, and say it to my son-in-law who works in HVAC
Indeed they are
Great post—great family!
This thread gives a great snapshot of Real America. It is a slice-of-life depiction of who makes America great.
Thanks to every man and woman who do their darndest to keep our land the best country on earth!
Thank your stock boys if you can.
I believe I ran into a deranged one early this AM, he was slamming paper towel cases onto the floor before cutting them open, perhaps he just wanted a better workout but I got angry vibes.
I’m sure they are all stressed.
Yes!
This is a great post.
More people need to see it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.