This is the year 2010, right?

Just checking.

I've been a trucking industry blogger for several years, with well over a million readers, and, been a driver for a lot longer than that. Like most people looking in on the trucking industry I've had opinions and judgments based on notions of what I thought I was looking at. As I became more and more entrenched and involved in issues as they pertain to truck drivers (and that's an entire book in itself if we're talking general controversy), my jaw would hit the floor on numerous occasions. The subject of this editorial is one of these "occasions", and in my view the most important one. Many industries, in past decades, have been battlegrounds for women's rights on several fronts. We're talking - equal pay, promotions, fair treatment, and of course, sexual harassment and abuse.

What would you say if I told you we still had an industry here in America where women were routinely harassed, abused and even placed in trucks as part of training procedures with known male convicted felons of sex crimes.

What would you say if I told you thousands of women were involved in huge sex abuse and discrimination lawsuits, some class action, against major trucking companies across America.

What would you say if I told you that the "climate" in this male dominated industry is "you say anything, kiss your job and your career good-bye."

The things I'm telling you here are well documented, and certainly no secret. But let me first warn you: If you plan on taking action, let's say, and you begin the journalists approach and contact the so-called women's trucking group, the top magazines and the top so-called owner operator trucking organization, what you'll find and what you'll hear is a very well orchestrated and long standing PR "spin" that has been carefully crafted for many decades.

Look deeper, dig into the dark, bloody dirt beneath this glossy, shallow veneer.

You may want to talk with Trucker Desiree (Desiree Wood) www.truckerdesiree.com who is arguably the most well know lady driver here in the U.S. and an extremely out-spoken activist for women and drivers rights in the trucking industry. You may want to talk to the thousands of women who follow Desiree.

Try also www.realwomenintrucking.com

From there you may want to expand your search to Dan Rather's HDNet show and look into the expose' broadcasts they've done on the trucking industry.

You may want to contact Donna and Allen Smith from www.askthetrucker.com and follow the wealth of information from their awesome site. Talk to many veteran truckers, particularly women drivers like Tammy Vanlue, who can be found on Facebook.

You may want to talk to several of the law firms involved in the major class action suits on behalf of women who have been abused, raped, beaten and murdered.

This information isn't hard to find.

If you're a radical feminist or a concerned man or woman in another field and you're reading this, or an equal rights activist and you're thinking about what I'm saying here, then - listen to this: By the time you do a little digging, a little research, your perspective, your views and opinions of the trucking industry will change radically - forever. You'll be so pissed and outraged you'll want to form a lynch mob, grab pitch forks, torches and rope and go after the "good ol' boys" in this industry. They've managed to stay under the radar and buffet you with false images and misdirection, expensive public relations campaigns and their powerful and wealthy lobby groups.

If you're a woman well, they think you're stupid and should stay that way since you're only good for one thing anyway.....Think I'm kidding or joking?

And, you'll soon find that they fully expect to pummel you with difficulties and a massive load of BS and you'll soon go away and cry and paint your nails somewhere.

Like I said - do a little research, you'll see it's much worse than I'm telling you here. Tens of thousands of women, willing and desperate to feed their families are being taken advantage of and abused every day...and night.

I'm thinking, based on my experience in journalism, that the only way light, more light, will be shed on this dark secret here in America, is, that this calls for radical action. Radical feminists. The fearless type.

And bring Gloria Allred www.gloriaallred.com

Life and death? Yes it is. Just ask the families and hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of abused, murdered and missing women.

The ones who can or the ones who aren't too afraid to come forward, that is.

This is 2010 right?

Just checking.

WANTED: RADICAL FEMINISTS

Republished with permission from the author Daniel Audet and Yahoo Associated Content

 

 

Daniel Audet is an aspiring mass market action adventure thriller commercial fiction author also dabbling in writers and trucking blogging, poetry and song lyrics. You might even hear him on the radio some nights doing his...  View profile