ECONOMY
Truck-driving jobs
go unfilled for a reason
I am writing in response to the Business section article regarding the continuing shortage of truck drivers (“Truck driver jobs hard to fill even in bad times,” Business, Nov. 4). Despite the millions of unemployed people in the U.S., the industry can recruit only a portion of the additional 115,000 drivers needed each year? These are good-paying jobs. A senior driver can earn over $100,000 per year.
For 35 years, I worked in and around the trucking industry. I do not recall trucking companies being unable to find recruits — only recruits they could hire. I have kept no hard data, but my observations are that only about one in four applicants can pass the drugs tests and background examinations required.
Does this country have a problem with unemployment, or does it have a problem with unemployables? The question bears on our efforts to “re-educate” and “re-train” our unemployed workforce — and how will re-training erase a positive drug test or a conviction?
MAX MCFARLIN, CONYERS
ELECTIONS
Obama campaign didn’t
foster bipartisanship
I read Jay Bookman’s “Whoever wins must learn to listen to the other side” (Opinion, Nov. 7), and found it fair and balanced.
Jay Bookman started by saying this was written before he knew who had won, and in his last sentence, termed the “important part,” he states, “If you lack the guts to campaign on that approach, you forfeit the right to govern that way.”
I agree. Only one candidate actively campaigned to reach out to the other side if he won — and that was Governor Romney. President Obama never said anything about bipartisan cooperation if elected. One must now conclude that based on Jay Bookman’s opinion, the winner, President Obama, has not earned the right to now expect the “other side” to begin to work with him.
That certainly does not bode well for our country.
LEE BORLAND, VILLA RICA
Male politicians should
know when to stay mum
As we come to the end of our exercise known as a national election, it does us well to reflect on it a bit. The election of a president by the electoral college seems a bit outdated. It is time to let each person’s vote count the same, and to elect the president by popular vote.
The recent election should be celebrated for the fact that this was probably the first time in history when demography trumped the money factor.
Also encouraging was the fact that the men running for elective office who do not spend time thinking and talking about female reproductive systems certainly did a lot better than those who do.
BETSEY MIKLETHUN, NORCROSS
COLLEGE SPORTS
‘One and done’ issue
calls for revised rules
I am glad that Mr. Emmert and the NCAA are concerned about the “one and done” in basketball (“Always trying to ‘raise the bar,’” Sports, Nov. 7). However, I was disappointed that Mr. Emmert is waiting for the NBA to take action.
Here is a suggestion that may work: Count the player who leaves after one year, in the calculation for Academic Progress Rate, as a non-graduating student. It seems unfair to penalize a school for a player who stays the four years but does not graduate, but not players who leave after one year.
During the first year of college, most of these players take the very minimum number of courses and achieve the lowest grades (and as such, do not affect the APR).
This may stop the likes of schools that, year in and year out, recruit players knowing that most will be leaving after one year and then, because of no penalties, re-load the next year.
TONY AWAD, ALPHARETTA
