Permit me this a brief detour from covering aircraft and allow me to introduce you to my friend Jake Brewer. Jake’s Dad work’s for GM in Tennessee. GM has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember, and now GM is staring down the spectre of a bankruptcy that has the potential to take an entire US state down with it. I, like Jake, am torn over what to do. What is the role of government? Can a business really be too big to fail? Or just too big? I’ll let Jake speak for himself and what GM has meant for his family and this country, I think you’ll appreciate Jake’s thoughts on innovation and technology in this tumultuous time.
Originally posted at huffingtonpost.com.
GM Goes Grassroots. A son is torn.
On November 12, Tom Brewer received an “URGENT call to action…”
along with all other General Motors employees in the United States from
GM North American President Troy Clarke. The return email address was
“grassroots@gm.com.” The urgent task at hand: Call your members of
Congress to request that the American auto industry receive a
government “loan” of at least $25 billion.Employees were then directed to a website through which to take action:
As a grassroots clean energy advocate and strategic communications
professional, it’s a type of request I know intimately. I’ve written
and received countless emails just like it. Two this week. Tom,
however, has not.Tom has been an employee of General Motors since he graduated from
Evansville University in 1974. At the time, for a Midwestern kid from
“stonecutter” Bedford, Indiana, it was kind of like going to work for
Google today.As you can imagine, Tom’s seen a lot happen in the energy and auto
industries in the last 34 years, but before this year he never
considered that his retirement, his health care, and indeed his
professional future would be in such dramatic jeopardy. In fact,
without ever changing careers, he once worked for the largest and
arguably the most influential corporation in the world; now he’s
getting these emails. He never dreamed that he’d need to be calling his
congressmen to save the company to which he’s always been loyal, and
upon which he and his family’s livelihood has depended. I can speak
with such certainty about Tom’s past because I’ve known him for 27 of
the 34 years he’s been with General Motors, and we’re very close.Tom is my dad.
This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.
This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.