“When are you going to grow up and take some responsibility for your actions?” asked Mr. Davis.
“What’s the big deal?” asked Jerry. “It’s just forty dollars.”
Jerry could not understand why his father was so upset. He had spent forty dollars at the video arcade, but he had earned the money by mowing lawns. It was his money. “Why shouldn’t he be allowed to spend the way he wanted to?” thought Jerry.
“You need to learn the value of money,” said Jerry’s father. “You don’t know when you may need it later.” Then Mr. Davis left the room before he got angrier.
“What’s his problem?” Jerry asked his mother.
Jerry’s mother had just sat quietly while her husband ranted and raved. Now, she was trying to calm down her son. “Jerry, try not to be too angry with your father. He has a lot on his mind right now. He does not want you to know this, but I think you have the right to hear it. The Johnson Automotive plant will be closing down in six months. Your father just found out today. After twenty-three years working at the plant, it is all over. Corporate headquarters in Topeka has decided to close the plant to cut costs.”
Johnson Automotive was the biggest employer in Great Bend, a small town in Western Kansas. Suddenly, Jerry’s attitude changed. If his father lost his job, he would not be able to go to college. Jerry went to his room and began searching the internet to learn all he could about Johnson Automotive. He printed out profit and sales reports, stockholder reports, and info about corporate headquarters in Topeka.
The next day at school, as Jerry ate lunch with his friends; Pam, Megan and Jack, he told them the news about the plant closing. They each had at least one parent working at the plant. Each of them also had at least two younger siblings. Jerry had five younger siblings. Jerry and his friends knew that their families depended on those jobs.
“That’s terrible,” said Pam. “About eighty percent of the adults in town are employed by Johnson Automotive. If the plant closes, the town will become a ghost town. I wish there was something we could do.”
“What can we do?” asked Jack. “We’re just kids.”
That remark caught Jerry’s attention. His dad was right. He needed to take on more responsibility. Jerry was only seventeen years old, but “maybe,” he thought, “just maybe, being a kid might work to his benefit in this situation.”
“This may sound crazy” said Jerry, “but, what if we try to save the town? What if, we found a way to keep the plant open?”
“Just the four of us?” asked Megan.
“No” said Jerry, “I mean all of the kids in the town. Our senior class has been looking for a way to give back to the community. How about saving the town from corporate greed?”
“What if we fail?” asked Jack.
“Then,
we’re no worse off” said Jerry. “The plant will close as
scheduled and the town will slowly die. However, what if we succeed?
We will be fighting, not just for our town, but for all of rural
America.”
“Let’s do it” said Megan.
“Yea,” said Pam.
“Count me in too” said Jack. “What is your plan?”
Jerry told them his idea, and between the four of them, they began to work out the details. “We have to keep quiet “said Jerry. “In order to protect our parents’ jobs, we cannot tell them about our plans. Pass the word to all of the juniors and seniors, and have them meet at the old Miller farm on the edge of town, Friday evening at 7pm.” Jerry gave an assignment to each of his friends and then he took the biggest tasks for himself.
On Friday evening, Jerry, Jack, Pam and Megan arrived at the abandoned farm and began discussing what they had discovered from their research. By six thirty, other high school students began arriving. At seven fifteen, when most of the teens had arrived, Jerry got everybody’s attention and began explaining why they were there. “As most of you know by now, Johnson Automotive plans to close the plant in Great Bend within six months. We can either stay on the sidelines or watch our town die, or we can fight. Once we graduate, in June, we can do whatever we please. We can go to college, join the military, or leave Great Bend, to parts unknown to find work, but, what about our parents? What about our younger brothers and sisters? We need to stand up for all of the small communities in America, who get pushed around. We need to take responsibility.”
“Do you have any kind of plan in mind?” asked one senior.
“Yes”-said Jerry. We will go to Topeka, to the annual stockholder’s meeting and we will present our case to the board of directors”.
“But, there’s not that many of us” said another student. “Will we be enough to make a difference?”
“That’s why we are planning to take every child in Great Bend with us,” said Pam. “We figure that would be over two thousand children.”
“When is the board meeting?” asked another teen.
“In just three weeks” said Jerry, so we have some time to do more research to build our case. We have to be prepared when we face the stockholders and the board of directors. We need all of you to help.”
“How about it?” asked Megan. “Are you with us?”
Everybody started cheering and agreed to help.