- / N2N / – The United States government is like a huge corporation with the elected officials being the board of directors and we the people being the stockholders. The board is elected by the stockholders to represent the interests of the stockholders. The dividends are not clearly monetary, but are more in the areas of job availability, border and civil security and the tools needed to live a good life such as affordable health care and housing, reasonably priced goods and services, and a good infrastructure. We stockholders pay the dividends and the salaries of the board through taxes, that is our contribution to making sure we have the dividends mentioned above.

Our duty as stockholders goes beyond just electing the board of directors and paying our taxes to support them. As in a corporation, the stockholders need to keep track of how the corporation is running, and if the dividends fall off or the corporation goes off on a tangent, then it is the stockholder’s duty to bring this to the board for resolution. If the board doesn’t address the problems to the satisfaction of the stockholders, then the stockholders can and should elect new board members that will do what the stockholders want.

Unfortunately, the American people have forgotten that they are the stockholders in the corporation of the United States and put too much trust into their board of directors. Most are apathetic and do not vote in elections or pay little attention to what the board is doing unless it strikes them directly and forcefully. Our board of directors has become bloated to the point of unhealthiness and does little to provide dividends to their stockholders, but why bother, the stockholders have let things go to where the board feels invincible.

This apathy is clearly apparent in the trucking industry as truckers sat back and allowed more and more regulations to be piled on the industry’s drivers and companies. Instead of taking charge of their share of the stockholder‘s duties, truckers allow safety and environmental groups, who though small in membership numbers, dictate what the truckers can do and how they can do it, and is taken to the point of even saying at what temperature the driver can sleep comfortably at. This trend continues to this very day and soon truckers will be so burdened with regulations that they will no longer be able to do their jobs efficiently.

We the people need to return to watching the actions of the government and be vocal in government issues and concerns. To do this the first task to be done is register to vote. This can be done online at register to vote . Once registered, VOTE! States offer absentee voting, and the ballots can be gotten with a letter to the county clerk where you live or you can vote early. The availability and time periods for early voting vary based on jurisdiction and type of election.

To use your vote wisely, you must keep current with issues. To do this you can listen to talk radio (I specially like the Rollye James Show on XM to keep current on issues both national and involving the trucking industry.), TV, read the paper, join organizations or go online. There are many reputable sites available for truckers to stay informed. Organizations like OOIDA provide calls to action to keep members informed of upcoming issues relating to the industry in a members home state and in the nation.

Another way to make your voice heard is by contacting your representatives directly. This can be done by phone, snail mail, email or fax. To find your representatives you can go to Congress or call the US Capitol switchboard @ 202 224 3121.. Remember to be civil, have your thoughts organized and it is better to stick to one issue per contact. OOIDA suggests that one calls or sends snail mail or faxes, but I have had some good luck with emailing, though if the time until a vote is short, I will call. It is your choice.

To get this huge corporation that we live in back on track, every American stockholder HAS to get involved and take the reins back into we the people’s hands. We the people need to make ourselves heard over the din of the special interest groups so that we can exercise our right to the dividends promised in the Constitution and Bill of Rights that founded this country. If we do not, it will not be long until we lose all of our rights to dividends and our identity as Americans. Who will we have to blame? We the people.

Ya’ll be safe out there!
Sandy Long is a long time truck driver who is also very active within the trucking industry. She was a long time writer for layover.com, is a life member of OOIDA, member of the WIT and owner of two websites: Trailer Truckin’ Tech, a yahoo group dedicated to the education of new and prospective truck drivers and www.satinandsteelsisterhood.com for women truck drivers. Sandy’s first book Street Smarts: A Guide for a Truck Driver’s Personal Safety is available at https://www.createspace.com/3449566

Nation2Nation publishes articles of interest to professionals involved in Supply Chain Security, Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Import Export, International Trade, Border Security, Transportation, Transportation Safety, Trucking, Railroad, Air Freight, Maritime and Cargo Management.  Contact Jeff Platts at contact@nation2nation.net.

This post was submitted by Sandy Long.

The Coast Guard has a centuries-old tradition as America’s primary federal maritime law enforcement agency. Over the years, the missions have changed, but the Coast Guard’s roles have remained the same: maritime safety, security and stewardship. Today, Admiral Allen will discuss the merits of a National Ocean Policy and improved governance framework as he testifies before Congress as a member of the Obama Administration’s Ocean Policy Task Force. This initiative represents a significant opportunity to employ a “whole government” approach to manage the use and protection of our marine resources and maritime waterways with an emphasis on sustainability and predictability.

Guardians are no strangers to big picture approaches to the governance of our nation’s waterways. For nearly two decades, Guardians have participated in scenario-based strategy development exercises aimed at forecasting the threats and opportunities to the Coast Guard’s missions through the Evergreen Process and as recently as 2007 issued a Coast Guard Strategy for Maritime Safety, Security and Stewardship which called for a national policy to “address concerns ranging from increased use of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to new uses in the Arctic.” More recently, Coast Guard cutters have assisted researchers at NOAA by deploying global drifter buoys to help us better understand our oceans while the polar icebreaker Healy has been involved in multiple initiatives to map and better understand the changing Arctic landscape.

Log on to Coast Guard Compass tomorrow morning for more on Admiral Allen’s appearance on Capitol Hill and check out the Commandant’s Twitter page to follow his testimony live.

For more information on the Coast Guard’s role in the Ocean Policy Task Force, please visit Admiral Allen’s blog posts on the establishment of the Task Force, the Task Force’s Arctic Awareness trip, marine spatial planning, and the Ocean Policy Task Force’s Interim Report.

Source = The Coast Guard Compass