Editorial: GM Is Part Of Fabric Of Janesville
Neil Heinen Weighs In On Plant's Closing
Updated: 1:38 pm CST December 23, 2008
By Neil Heinen
Editorial DirectorIt is fitting that in final days of the Janesville General Motors plant the images are dominated by workers holding their annual Christmas basket assembly line, giving back to the community to the end.The reality is -- as painful and final as the closing seems right now -- GM will be inextricably part of the fabric of the community for long into the future. Eighty-five years of employing Rock County families, providing the foundation for the Rock County economy, supporting the most important civic organizations and structure of the community and providing the image to world of who the community is -- will do that. It is not easily erased, not should it be.Janesville will move on. That too is who Janesville is, in part because of GM. It has a spirit and ethic that will help it not just survive this setback, but thrive.But in the end, GM was about those workers and those families and they are going out with the same class they brought to their jobs and their company. And that's the picture of Janesville on GM's last day.What do you think? Give your two cents in Channel 3000's TALKBACK section.
Editorial DirectorIt is fitting that in final days of the Janesville General Motors plant the images are dominated by workers holding their annual Christmas basket assembly line, giving back to the community to the end.The reality is -- as painful and final as the closing seems right now -- GM will be inextricably part of the fabric of the community for long into the future. Eighty-five years of employing Rock County families, providing the foundation for the Rock County economy, supporting the most important civic organizations and structure of the community and providing the image to world of who the community is -- will do that. It is not easily erased, not should it be.Janesville will move on. That too is who Janesville is, in part because of GM. It has a spirit and ethic that will help it not just survive this setback, but thrive.But in the end, GM was about those workers and those families and they are going out with the same class they brought to their jobs and their company. And that's the picture of Janesville on GM's last day.What do you think? Give your two cents in Channel 3000's TALKBACK section.
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