I was driving around Frederick County, Maryland, last week, and I saw a huge homemade wooden sign that said, “If you have groceries, thank a truck driver.”
My mind immediately raced to a song by the legendary country music group, Alabama. The chorus ends with, “Roll on eighteen-wheeler roll on.”
Since then, I’ve struggled with how to write about the unsung heroes who are making it possible for my family (and yours) to survive during this pandemic.
The doctors, nurses, and scientists working tirelessly don’t get enough credit—but at least they get some (especially, now).
This sudden boost of gratitude and attention is a good thing. Maybe a few of today’s little kids—the ones who might normally admire rock stars and football heroes—will want to grow up to be like Dr. Anthony Fauci or Dr. Deborah Birx. If we’re going to celebrate and lionize certain professions, we could do a lot worse.
But that’s not the focus of this essay. It has taken a pandemic for us to realize that the truly unsung heroes are the people working the less glamorous, but equally crucial, jobs.
Let’s take, for example, the cashier at your local grocery store. She is, as a function of her job, regularly exposed to a highly contagious (and sometimes deadly) virus. There are any number of people who are facing the same threat somewhere in the supply chain from farm to table. As a society, we don’t fully appreciate their contribution.
Until now.
Alabama’s song “Forty Hour Week (For a Livin’)” says this better than I ever could. I played the song for my boys, the other day. If you’re not familiar with it, it goes like this:
There are people in this country who work hard every day
Not for fame or fortune do they strive
But the fruits of their labor are worth more than their pay
And it's time a few of them were recognized
The song, which was released in 1985, celebrates the hard-working steel mill workers, coal miners, farmers, and auto workers who have been largely left behind by a changing economy. It continues:
This is for the one who drives the big rig, up and down the road
Or the one out in the warehouse, bringing in the load
Or the waitress, the mechanic, the policeman on patrol
For everyone who works behind the scenes
With a spirit you can't replace with no machine
Hello America let me thank you for your time
That penultimate line about “a spirit you can’t replace with no machine” really resonates at this moment. One of the examples frequently cited by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang as an argument for his Universal Basic Income (UBI) plan was that the trucking industry was about to be automated—a development that would displace countless drivers across America.
Let’s be honest. Most people working in politics or journalism today might worry about the macro impact automation will have on our economy, but how many of us have lost a minute of sleep worrying about the plight of the individual truck driver or his family? Not many.
If something good comes from this experience, maybe it will be genuine appreciation for the (and here, I will use a Bernie Sanders term) “working people” who are keeping us fed. They are modern-day heroes. And it’s time a few of them were recognized.
At the very least, when you interact with them, please thank them. Tip them. GENEROUSLY. Make an effort to get to know them. Appreciate them. Because, as Alabama says, “They keep this country turning around.”
And roll on eighteen-wheeler, roll on!
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