My father used to tell the story of the guy who rounded the cliff too fast in his new car and tumbled over the edge. He was lucky enough to grab a branch as he fell down the mountain, but after hanging onto the branch for a few hours, he became quite tired. “Can anyone hear me?” he shouted. No response. “God? Hello, God? Can you hear me?” he yelled.
A voice boomed down from the heavens. “I can hear you,” the voice said.
“Can you help me?” the man said.
“Do you believe in God?” the voice replied.
“Oh, yes! Yes!” the man said.
“If you believe in God, let go of the branch,” said the voice.
The man thought about it for several seconds. “Can anyone else hear me?” he said.
Each of us has experienced those moments in which we feel ignored by an impersonal, even unjust universe. We shout our frustrations to someone who may or may not be in charge, because it’s the best we’ve got and it’s all we can do. But nothing happens. Nothing changes.
Today is the 281st of the Apocalypse known as the election of one Donald Trump, whereby the hordes from Trumpistan rode in shouting their racist, sexist, nationalistic cant and stole the reins of our country. The outraged among us have marched, attended town halls, contacted our elected representatives, and otherwise done whatever we could think of to resist, only to be answered with silence as the outrages continue unabated.
On Friday, August 12, a white Nazi sympathizer plowed into a crowd of anti-white nationalist protesters. Two police officers also died when their helicopter crashed. A handful of elected leaders offered statements of outrage, though most politicians were either silent or uttered a few hackneyed, anodyne syllables of CYA.
Of note, though, was pharmaceutical giant Merck’s CEO, Kenneth Frazier, who resigned from Trump’s Manufacturing Advisory Council as a matter of conscience. Trump, if you’ll recall refused to call out white supremacists or white nationalists.
More noteworthy, though, are the other members of the council who said nothing. Ms. Denise Morrison, CEO of Campbell Soup, issued an Orwellian newspeak response, saying, “…Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is unwavering, and we will remain active champions for these efforts. We believe it is important for Campbell to have a voice and provide input on matters that will affect our industry, our company and our employees in support of growth. Therefore, Ms. Morrison will remain on the President’s Manufacturing Jobs Initiative.”
Below is a list of the others on the council with hyperlinks to contact them. It was the best I could pull together, but let them know what you think in a respectful way.
UPDATE: Under Armour’s Kevin Plank has stepped down and made a forceful statement!
UPDATE: Brian Krzanich Intel CEO, has exited the council and made a statement!
UPDATE: Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing has resigned, citing conscience.
UPDATE (8/16/17): Inge Thulin, CEO of IBM, has resigned from the council. So did Denise Morrison of Campbell Soup. A few minutes ago, Trump tweeted that he was disbanding the council.
Andrew Liveris, The Dow Chemical Company, anliveris@dow.com
Michael Dell, Dell Technologies, michael@dell.com
Bill Brown, Harris Corporation, https://www.harris.com/about/contact-us
John Ferriola, Nucor Corporation info@nucor.com
Jeff Fettig, Whirlpool Corporation https://www.whirlpool.com/services/contact-us.html
Jim Hackett, Ford Motor Company, media@ford.com
Alex Gorsky, Johnson & Johnson https://www.ccc-consumercarecenter.com/UCUConfiguration?id=a0758000004NIaL
Greg Hayes, United Technologies Corp. makethingsbetter@utc.com
Marilynn Hewson, Lockheed Martin Corporation http://m.lockheedmartin.com/m/us/contact.html
Jeff Immelt, General Electric https://www.ge.com/contact/general
Jim Kamsickas, Dana Inc. , jeff.cole@dana.com
Klaus Kleinfeld, Arconic, mediainquiries@arconic.com.
Brian Krzanich, Intel Corporation https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/forms/corporate-responsibility-contact-us.html
Rich Kyle, The Timken Company http://www.timken.com/contact-general/
Thea Lee, AFL-CIO pressclips@aflcio.org
Mario Longhi, U.S. Steel https://www.ussteel.com/newsroom
Denise Morrison, Campbell Soup Company, https://www.campbellsoupcompany.com/connect-with-campbell/email/
Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing http://www.boeing.com/contact-us.page. Scroll down a bit.
Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar. New CEO is Dave Calhoun. http://www.caterpillar.com/en/contact.html
Scott Paul, Alliance for American Manufacturing http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/pages/contact
Kevin Plank, Under Armour mediarelations@underarmour.com
Michael Polk, Newell Brands Corporate Communications
Mark Sutton, International Paper http://www.internationalpaper.com/contact-us
Inge Thulin, 3M, https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/help-center/
Richard Tumka, AFL-CIO pressclips@aflcio.org
Wendell Weeks, Corning https://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/contact-us.html
The Plucky Observer 