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Story - USA - Prayers or grief for icon? --
Entity of Ford is our patron
Detroit,Mich,USA -The Detroit Free Press, by Laura Berman -Sept 16, 2006: -- Ill automaker's legacy and influence has made a lasting imprint on Metro Detroit, residents and workers... We -- all of us who live in this area -- are gathered at the bedside of a gravely ill family member... Not mother or father or brother but a company that has defined us for a century... Some of us grew up here, as did Bob Balaka, a 50-year-old manager at Ford. He lives in Dearborn, at once surrounded by all things Ford and also oblivious to them... Balaka's father was a skilled tradesman who made wood models for Ford. The son attended Clara Bryant Junior High School -- "although I didn't realize until I brought friends home from college that she was the wife of Henry Ford."... Now he drives his Ford Escape two miles down Ford Road every day to get to the company's iTech Center... His wife, Wendy, describes herself as "terrified," anxious about an uncertain future. With four school-age children, she worries the family may have to move out of state. "You can't believe how many houses are for sale in Dearborn," she says... Like it or not, choose it or not, drive it or not, the entity of Ford is our patron... But the name that once stood for great expectations -- for a soaring belief in the future, for a can-do working man spirit -- doesn't stand for that anymore... In speeches yesterday, William Clay Ford Jr., the chairman, and other Ford executives made it clear that they're downsizing not only the company but their dreams... The cuts are dramatic. And even the most optimistic out there must feel the ground trembling... Even the leaders at Ford are saying their ambitions are limited, their hopes curtailed... In the Balaka household, Bob Balaka remains optimistic: In traumatic change, he sees hope for the future... Even if we're not all officially dwelling in the world of Ford, we cannot escape the company's legacy and influence. The Ford name is everywhere, including the institutions that mark our rites of passage, from the hospital where your babies are born, to the wedding chapel; on the auditorium and fountain at the riverfront, even on assisted living facilities... Henry Ford, the founder, famously said that "history is bunk."... It's not -- but when you need to reinvent yourself, it can be a burden. That's where the company is, where we all are now, trying to extract ourselves from the weighty past and look ahead, to the next size-to-be-determined thing...
posted by Unknown @ 1:20 PM
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