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Baseball great
Lou Gehrig had his career cut short after he was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis). As a player he excelled to the point of playing shortstop
and being lead off batter for the famed New York Yankees. So, when he
was forced to leave the game early due to his illness, it would have been
understandable for him to feel bitter about the experience. However, rather
than dwell on the negatives in his life he chose to look at the positives.
At his final game he stood in front of a sell out crowd of 62,000 at Yankee
Stadium and stated, “Today I think I am the luckiest man on Earth.”
Well I am no big leaguer and I don’t have a life threatening disease,
but I know how Lou Gehrig felt. I will be leaving a job I have come to
love in a few weeks, several years ahead of the time I had planned to
just as most of you. There is a lesson to be learned from Lou Gehrig’s
example, because rather than deal on the fact that we are leaving sooner
than we hoped, there is satisfaction in knowing what we have accomplished.
Over 15 years ago I was given the honor of being named editor for the
site by Bill Freeman and Ted Letson. At the time I didn’t really
know what I was getting in to, but the point of this job has become increasingly
clear to me through these years of serving the people of this site. To
my best estimation, I have printed somewhere around 7,000 pages of information
between Southern Accents, Steering South, Steering TOday and the websites.
In writing these articles I have gotten to know the people of this site
pretty well, and feel privileged to have been able to tell your stories.
Through the years our newsletters and websites have won a number of awards
and accolades from the International Union and the corporation. However,
never in a moment of vanity did I ever succumb to the temptation of thinking
it was anything I had accomplished; you see all I have done is simply
tell your stories. These were the stories of a people so unique and uncommon
that you tackled every challenge thrown your way. When the deck was stacked
against you was usually when you shined the brightest. The higher the
bar was set the greater your effort and the loftier your sights. Over
and over again the people of this site have opened up their hearts to
me and shared their stories and accomplishments and this made my job easy.
Through the years the awards for this site have rolled in. Over and over
again the Alabama Site was recognized for quality, for health and safety,
for delivery and for their support of the community. The focus and intensity
in which you met the challenges of this job may never grace the halls
of industry but in your hearts you will always know you performed your
duties to the best of your ability. This is especially true over the past
few years as the site faced mounting competitive pressures and lower volumes
due to sales. The Alabama Site lead the AHG in year over year cost improvements
while setting performance records for health and safety, quality and delivery.
This workforce had great value and this value came from what you accomplished;
see this is a fact those on the outside may never understand. Your value
came not from your compensation but what you achieved. The value of the
people of this site never came from earnings and changes to earnings could
never change your worth. You are all a people of great value and this
will never change.
Through the years we have spent more time together, than we have spent
at home. In a sense the people of this site have become a family within
these buildings and I maybe more than others have had the opportunity
to witness this. When I first began writing the newsletter, I was very
surprised at the interest everyone had in the graduate edition. I was
particularly puzzled by the fact that people who didn’t have a child
in the issue were quick to take one. Over the course of time I came to
realize why; each of you are a part of one another and you take pride
in each other’s accomplishments. Usually the readers would read
each student’s profile to see who they belonged to and would comment
to me they worked with the parents when the child was born. You may have
never realized it, but you impacted the people around you much and made
their life fuller and more meaningful.
“And the spirit, fills the darkness of the heavens,
It fills the endless yearning of the soul,
It lives within a star too far to dream of,
It lives within each part and is the whole
It’s the fire and the wings that fly us home.”
from
“The Wings That Fly Us Home”
By John Denver and Joe Henry
It is sad to think about, but the reality
of the situation is there are few people who work here today that will
be here next June. The names and the faces will be replaced with a new
generation of workers stepping in to make their own mark and most of us
may never see each other again. However, even though we maybe separated
we will never be apart. Just as the poem states, the influence we have
had on each others lives will fill the void our presence makes. The collective
effort we have exerted truly “lives with in each part and is the
whole.”
Personally, I would like to thank each of you for the support and assistance
I have received in my 28 years, particularly over the past 15+ while the
honor of being your editor has been mine. When I asked Bill and Ted to
consider me for this job all those years ago, I told them I couldn’t
promise to do the best job that anyone could, but I would promise to do
the best job I could. I hope each of you feel I have attempted to keep
that promise.
So as we part over the next few weeks and our lives take different paths,
never forget what you accomplished here and do not leave feeling discouraged
about the situation. Take a lesson from Lou Gehrig and know that what
we did collectively here made us the luckiest people on Earth; each of
us had the opportunity to work with the best people you will find on Earth
and that in itself is a pride we all can share.
Peace My Brothers and Sisters,
John T. Davis
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