July 21, 2006

Lafayette, we are here!

In July 1917, at the Paris tomb of the Marquis de Lafayette, one of General Pershing's aides acknowledged the 140-year-old debt America owed to the Marquis, who led French forces in aid of the American Revolution, and to the French. The speech heralded the [official] arrival of US forces to fight the Central Powers in WWI.

Today I felt the same exultation as the French may have felt, if in a much poorer cause, and more curious stimulus. I saw a convoy of ten utility trucks, seven of them huge cable-stringing cherry-picker rigs, rolling slowly up the road toward the town where I work, where several co-workers are still without power three days after a devastating storm last Tuesday evening. The trucks were marked "Pike Electric, Mt Airy NC", and had apparently rolled up from North Carolina in response to the local utility's call for help.

I'm sure that the Philadelphia utilities have sent their teams south during hurricane season for years: it was a pleasure to see the "debt" repaid in our time of need. Posted by ronlusk at July 21, 2006 12:49 PM