Lessons from the Jeep Wrangler

This year in Toledo, we have awoken to the news that, in all probability, the Jeep Wrangler will no longer be made at our home plant.  Due to fuel efficiency regulations, the Jeep has had to be re-engineered, and the frame will have to be made out of aluminum.  Fiat Chrysler has done their analysis and found that it wouldn’t be cost effective to retrofit the factory with all new equipment necessary to produce the Wrangler.  Apparently, this change won’t affect employment, Jeep won’t be shut down and moved to Mexico, Toledoans will simply continue without the Wrangler.  The unions have asked GM to reconsider, the mayor has petitioned Sergio Marchionne in person to change his mind, and he has said that as long as he is in charge the Wrangler will continue to be made in Toledo.  Of course this isn’t the best news because he has also announced he will be retiring in 2018.  So it seems inevitable that 70 plus years of a proud tradition will come to an end.

On the surface, it isn’t a major affair, but the reactions of the people around here speak to a broader point that I never hear addressed in the media.  I count myself a believer in global warming, and I understand that humanity has caused immeasurable damage to the environment.  I don’t need the science to believe what I see with my own eyes.  We consume and discard with abandon, we build and destroy, and we waste energy and material.  I don’t get my information from some source that other people don’t, I listen to the same media outlets as everybody else, and the only conclusion I can reach is that there is now no place on Earth that we aren’t affecting negatively, and it’s time for a change.  However, there are many skeptics who seem to be actively ignoring the truth of this.  The power elite who are invested in the industries that are doing the most harm have been spreading false accusations and people are swallowing it whole.  They say that science is corrupt.  They say they’ve been misleading people in order to keep money coming in from government grants.  They say the sun is the real cause of global warming, not us.  In my mind, it is a form of self-delusion that is born of something deeper.  The only way to address the problem of delusion is to address the root causes, and I think the Jeep Wrangler story illuminates one of the major problems that is stagnating the debate over global warming.

The Jeep Wrangler has become an icon for Toledo.  Alongside the Mud Hens, Jamie Farr, and Tony Packo’s hot dogs, we speak of the Jeep Wrangler in hushed and reverent tones.  Here is the vehicle that won World War 2… Here is the car that carried people over this country’s mountain trails and wilderness.  Jeep workers go back generations.  Grandfathers welcomed their sons onto the line, then the grandsons joined the Auto Workers Union.  I think nowadays we can’t imagine what it meant for people to have a steady factory job.  Our grandfathers’ generation grew up in a time when they had to hustle for every penny.  A job at Jeep meant a steady paycheck, money that could be saved for a future.  They could get a loan to buy a house, get married and have a family.  It wasn’t just some illusory American Dream, it was a foothold in the world.  They were invested in something other than hard struggle and survival.  They could settle in and raise kids who didn’t have to leave school to work in the fields.  They were contributing to a war effort against an oppressive enemy, and they could lift themselves out of crushing poverty.  Loyalty to the company became an extension of their lives.  The men and women who connected their lives to Jeep, in much the same way the men and women who worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, or the ranches in Oklahoma, or the oil fields in Texas, or the loggers in Wisconsin, played the game by the rules.  They worked hard and earned a happy life.  They bought cars and televisions and watched their country become wealthy and powerful and it proved beyond doubt that our system was a path to peace and freedom for the world.  Our way of life not only worked for us, but it was exportable.  We were that shining city on the hill.

Now, the scientists and the lefties are telling us that it has all been a big mistake.  Our grandfathers and all those preceding generations that we turned into myths and heroes have created a society that is destined to fail.  The hard work, the success, has created a sickness in the world and unless we drastically alter our lifestyle the air will be poisoned, the water will be toxic, and food will be scarce.

Is it really so simple to turn off peoples’ sentiments?  Is it enough to simply say, “the facts are on our side.  If you can’t accept these facts then you are a fool.”  We need to take a step back and reframe the debate.  I have tried my best to understand the world better and the only way I could was to try to see the next person’s perspective.  If the facts that we state over and over don’t convince people of the truth, then we need to at least listen to them to try to get at the heart of the problem.  For the people in Toledo who are angry that the Administration has instituted reforms that are straining industry by making them conform to “Green” regulations, the same advice applies.  Things need to change.  Sacrifices need to be made and I don’t necessarily agree that a manufactured product copied a million times from an original model is the “heart and soul of this town.”  We can be proud of our tradition, proud that we made a great and popular product, and we can still be proud of this town, but we need to take a serious look at how we are walking on this precious ground.