Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Northrop Grumman EADs Tanker Award

The recent award of a tanker contract to Northrop Grumman/EADs has everyone up in arms. Everyone that is, but the people on The Gulf Coast. The Gulf Coast and specifically Alabama is, as I recall, still a part of the USA. We are not French, Mexican or Canadian. Alabama is also a state of The United States variety.

The same people going nuts over a south eastern state receiving this contract award are not complaining about all the US jobs that Walmart costs The US every year. Somewhere between the high 70s and about 90% of all the goods in Walmart are made in China. By the way that is Communist China. If that tanker is made in Mobile, Alabama it will be 100% US Citizens working on it. Not Chinese, Mexican, South or Central Americans or even Canadiens. By the way Canadiens are very near and dear to my heart so please don’t take offense. And... Mexico is one of my very favorite places.

Look at it like this. I just bought a Toyota Tundra. The one with the big V8. I was chided by my local friends because it’s a “foreign” truck. Then I walked my Ford and GM buddies out to their trucks and showed them where they were assembled in Canada and South America. Then I walked them over to my Toyota and showed them where it was assembled in Indiana. By the way, that’s not India, it’s Indiana as in Indiana, good ole USA. To add insult to their fractured egos then I showed them the big blue and yellow sticker that was on the window when I bought it that says “Built with Pride, United Auto Workers Union.” Who’s driving a foreign truck?

This is the same scenario. Northrop = US company, EADs = French company... Tankers built in Mobile, ALabama = 100% American made by US Citizens. Someone needs to drop the political rhetoric and tell the truth. This is not a hard concept. USAF tankers built in Mobile, Alabama will be Made With Pride, In The United States of America.

As a side note. The Gulf Coast was hit two years in a row by the most destructive hurricanes in US history and they still have a ways to go for recovery. The entire Gulf Coast region and the South Eastern US profits from this tanker contract award. We are not French or foreigners at all. We’re your neighbors from The South so act right.

Lastly I want to give a very short history lesson. In reverse chronology told by the rhetoric of good old boys everywhere. It is a common phrase where Americans say, when frustrated with the gross liberalism of France, “They’d all be speaking German if it wasn’t for us.” That may be true. A little further back in time reveals a lesson we all seem to forget. The US would most likely still be a British Colony if the French Fleet hadn’t bottled up Cornwallis during The Revolutionary War.

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