Roger & Me Page #4

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The last truck chassis headed

down the line this morning.

Virtually all the 3,400 people are on layoff.

Larry Elliot was at the plant today...

as that last car was making its way

down the assembly line.

Will this plant build engines again

if the rush back to small cars occurs?

The answer is no.

In Flint, Joe Weaver,

Channel 2 Eyewitness News.

More factories had closed...

and I began to see the effect

this was having on my friends.

Ben was the worker I'd put on the cover

of that magazine in San Francisco.

He'd been laid off

five times in five years from GM.

Expecting to be laid off again, he cracked

one night working on the assembly line.

He was now shooting hoop

at the local mental health center.

I couldn't take it. I told the guy next to me:

"Tell the foreman I'm sick.

I don't give a sh*t what you tell him."

I grabbed my coat, flew out the door,

passed the guards...

jumped into my car,

got onto Bristol Road...

and was flying toward my apartment.

I turned on the radio,

hoping that might cheer me up...

I had tears coming out of my eyes...

and I strike right into the middle

of Wouldn't It Be Nice by The Beach Boys.

And I'm thinking, "What a horrible song...

"to have to hear

in the midst of this panic attack."

A song that I'd usually

get a groove going with.

I'm trying to sing the lyrics,

and I've got an apple in my throat.

I'm trying to rationalize with those lyrics...

trying to think, "Wouldn't it be nice?"

And it just wasn't working.

Some disturbing news today from

the Genesee County Health Department.

It announced the rat population in Flint...

has now surpassed

the human population by 50,000.

Health officials say it's due

to massive numbers of people leaving...

and the city cutting back

to twice-monthly garbage collection...

due to budget constraints.

Just when things were looking bleak,

Ronald Reagan arrived in Flint...

and took a dozen unemployed workers

out for a pizza.

He told them he had a great idea.

If they tried it, they'd all be working again.

He suggested that maybe some of us...

could find better jobs elsewhere...

like in Texas, or in the southern states.

That's when I spoke up...

because I have a son, a home.

I'm trying to do it by myself. I can't just

pull up stakes and take off by myself.

We don't hold public office,

we're nobody special...

but he wanted our opinions and views.

It was at a level I could understand,

and I liked his ideas...

that he voiced to us.

None of Reagan's luncheon guests

got back into the factory in later years.

The only bright spot of the whole affair...

was the individual who borrowed

the restaurant's cash register...

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