March 2006

Letters to the Editor

Finding wisdom in a taxi

Thank you, President Taylor, for your interesting article on taxi drivers ("President's Corner," February 2006 Bar News). My father was a taxi driver for some 50 years, most of them in the Seattle and Snohomish County areas. For a time, he owned a small company in Snohomish County.

Throughout high school and into college, I was an employee and eventually its manager. While Snohomish County in those years was not as diverse as it is now, the drivers were still fascinating men and women even if not from other countries. Ranging from tough older women who just didn't like to sit behind a desk to young men starting out in the workforce to a pastor looking for extra money, they worked long hours for little money. They were caring people who carried groceries up the steps even for a $3.00 fare who would only tip a quarter. They would worry about little old Miss Mathison who went to the Pancake House in Edmonds every day for lunch. If 11 o'clock came and went without hearing from her, one of the drivers would casually mention to me over the radio that they were just going to go check on her.

While people complain sometimes now of the drivers who are so new to the area that they don't know their way around as much as they will in the future, I remember many a lifelong American driver getting just as lost in the wilds of Briar or Woodway in Snohomish County so many years ago. Have patience, they will learn to find their way around just as my drivers did 30 years ago.

Taxi drivers have a unique opportunity sometimes to change the course of a person's life. One night my father picked up a distraught and drunk man from a bar whose wife had just left him. He was going from bar to bar, drinking with strangers. The man wanted to go to yet another bar. The man had over $20,000 on him and was virtually giving it away to the other patrons because he saw no future for himself. My father, a recovering alcoholic himself, talked the man into checking into a hotel and sleeping it off. He talked him into allowing him to take the rest of his money to give to his children to hold for him. He came home with an envelope filled with cash and called the man's children who were very grateful that their father had, in effect, been rescued by a stranger from throwing away his entire fortune.

To this day, I love taking taxi rides and talking to the drivers. My friends always tease me for my exorbitant tips on short taxi rides, but I remember how much my drivers needed that extra money so long ago.

Anyway, thanks for reminding us all of the benefits of opening our eyes to the experiences of others from other communities and the freedoms we take for granted living in this country.

Nancy Hawkins, Seattle

Immigrants show the way to a restored America

Dear President Taylor: Thank you for sharing your commuting experiences with the rest of the bar association. What you relate illustrates that America is still a beacon on the hill and a land of hope, promise, and opportunity for so many around the world.

A key element to the success enjoyed by these immigrants, in addition to their diligence and hard work, however, is the tight and supportive family structure that they maintain. Sometimes over distances of thousands of miles.

The same opportunities exist here for native-born Americans, but in many cases the family unit has been destroyed by our social policies and that vital, nurturing, supportive structure no longer exists.

What an economic engine for our economy if the American family structure could be re-established. A worthy goal for our state and nation and the causes of the collapse of the American family are not difficult to identify.

Thank you for your most interesting and instructive "President's Corner" column in the February issue of Bar News.

Carleton B. Waldrop, Pullman