Chuck, I highly respect your enthusiasm, your passion, your excitement, regardless of how naive it may be. I see nothing wrong with it, or in you expressing it. I do feel that you are trying to mold the independent contractor expediter relationship with the carriers into something more like an employee relationship. That's just not going to happen. I can't make my carrier into what I wish them to be. I have to accept them for what they are. If I cannot accept them for what they are, I'm free to choose another carrier. I can suggest changes to them until I am blue in the face, and they will make no changes whatsoever unless it benefits them in some manner. That's called the free market, and it works. When the day comes where there are many more expedited loads than there are drivers to expedite them, then the drivers will be given more incentives to remain on the job and take those loads. No union or organization will force that to happen any sooner than it will naturally, if ever.
I do think that locking a thread, especially locking one because "I feel this thread has gone on long enough..." is a little silly and is really nothing more than an exercise of power over something that would die a natural death on its own, anyway. (Sorry guys, but that's how I feel about content censorship on a "General" topic forum. If it's gone on long enough, the thread will kill itself on its own. If Chuck's hellbent on continuing to post in the thread, and if others are stoopid enough to keep on posting replies to it, what difference does it make, regardless of how sad and silly it spirals down to become? I quit reading that thread about 8 posts into it, 'cause I knew where it was going, and as far as I was concerned, about 8 posts into it was already long enough. I went back and revisited that thread because of this one, and didn't see anything in there for cause to lock it, actually.)
Now, Chuck, after having said all that, I do have to wonder what rights you have had taken away from you by having that thread locked. Please don't tell me that you think your First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom from censorship have somehow been violated on a privately owned Internet message board. The First Amendment only applies to censorship and muzzling by the government. Private entities can censor you any way they wish, including locking a thread.
(I know that many Liberals think that Free Speech means the freedom to say anything without any repercussions or reprisals from anyone, including people disagreeing with them. Too bad. It's kind of like preaching tolerance, and then having no tolerance for those who have no tolerance. But I digress. :7 )
To do is to be. -Descartes
To be is to do. -Voltaire
Do be do be do. -Frank Sinatra
