GM WORKERS Living for the moment

By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LIFE SINCE SEPT. 11 HAS BEEN LIKE Aride on a white-water raft for Ina Madison and some of her co-workers at the General Motors Lordstown assembly plant.
"What do you do in white water? You don't know what's coming at you," Madison said.
"Hold on for dear life," co-worker Jan Wright responded.
"Paddle like hell," added Larry Wales.
Wales said that like the flow of a raging river, their way of life has been constantly changing during the last six months. To deal with the changes, they've been trying to hold on and paddle like hell.
"We don't know how to deal with the change in our lives, so we're kind of fishing for different methods, and modes and models of, how do we deal with this change?" said Christine Coiner, another worker.
Life strategy: Coiner said that so far, her strategy has been to "live life to the fullness in this minute." That sentiment was echoed by her co-workers.
"Don't sweat the small stuff. Next Christmas is the small stuff. Next month is the small stuff. My big stuff right now is this moment. I'm with these people; I like them. I'm going to treat them right," Madison said.
Wales added, "How many times has somebody in the family passed away, I said, 'Boy, I wish I would've done this, I wish I would have said that.'
"You know, and I live every day, I try to do whatever I want to do, I do. I won't say, 'Well, I wish I would've done that yesterday.' I do it. And you know, when I go, I'm [going to] leave saying that I did everything I could do on this earth."
Yet the employees also said they don't think they'll have to paddle forever.
"I think it's just change we're going through, and we'll adapt to that change because life goes on," Coiner said.
The six GM workers who talked with The Vindicator about how the Sept. 11 attacks have changed their lives were: Ina Madison, 52, Jan Wright, 46, and Sheryll Giddens, 52, all of Youngstown; Larry Wales, 56, of East Palestine; Christine Coiner, 46, of Streetsboro; and Bill Crawford, 50, of New Middletown.
Downsizing: "Life will never be the same again," Wright said, noting that her family has felt the effects of the changes in the American economy since the attacks.
"The first thing that I noticed is two people in my family got downsized right off the bat. My niece was working on a major project for her company, and even though she was knee-deep in that, they dispensed with the whole department. And my other niece's husband went to work Monday morning and the building was all boarded up.
"All over the United States, you're hearing about downsizing and whole sections being laid off. And that's a frightening thing, because things that you thought were stable were not stable anymore. There's nothing concrete here anymore."
Crawford added that the Sept. 11 attacks also affected his family's friends.
A changing perception: "My daughter has friends in Northern Ireland -- she's been there, and her friend was supposed to come over and see her this summer. She said she's not coming over because we're at war with terrorism, and she lived in Northern Ireland," Crawford said.
Madison said she believes that shows how the effects of the attacks reached outside American borders.
"She's looking at us like, America got hit. The world has changed, because people came to America to be safe. Now, that's ironic, Northern Ireland saying, 'I'm not going to America,'" she said.
Wright noted that Americans now have some understanding of what it's like to live in an area like Northern Ireland.
"It was a humbling experience for me, and I hope and pray that it was for all of America, because, you know, we are known as the 'Ugly Americans,'" she said.
"We are arrogant; we think nobody knows anything but us, we have all might, all power. And they hit us at some of the major centers: They hit us at the symbols of our financial strength, which was the World Trade Center; they hit us at the Pentagon, which was a symbol of our military might. And they had one slated to go for a building that talked about our governmental powers.
"That should let us know that we are not gods, like we really thought we were in a lot of instances."
An eye-opener: Both Wales and Giddens said their feelings about safety in America have changed.
"I think it was an eye-opener for Americans. Because I never, ever thought that they would have the nerve to penetrate us. I thought we were secure," Giddens said.
Wales said that before the attacks, he thought, "the airways were always safe."
"I never dreamed that they were this unsafe because I was in the service and I was in Washington, D.C. I was stationed there ... and I can't see how a plane could have, that could happen in Washington, D.C., the security that I was in," he said.
Many of the employees said they felt public officials and business people have tried to increase security since Sept. 11, particularly at airports. However, Wales stressed he was worried that airport security officials weren't qualified for their jobs.
"The airports are hiring extra security, but who are they hiring -- 2,000 people to build up security -- are they people just off the street? And that, I think, is going to be a total farce until we have trained people who know exactly what they're doing," he said.
Security: Madison noted that her son, who attends college near Norfolk, Va., was once waived through a security checkpoint because he is black:
"He said, 'You know what, I could have been a terrorist. You know, that's screwed up. Because they don't know if I'm from Libya or wherever. Because I'm dark-skinned doesn't mean I'm not foreign.'"
Wales added, "They're not targeting the right people." The "right people" could be Americans like John Walker Lindh, an American accused of aiding the Taliban, some of the employees said.
Madison stressed that she feels Lindh is a traitor who should be put to death.
"He that spies [against] his own is the worst enemy that you can have," she said. "To me, the definition of treason, that's treason."
Giddens added, "He's even worse than the [Taliban], simply because he is an American."
Madison also said the increase in the country's security could be disconcerting for Americans, noting that she experienced discomfort when she went to visit her son at his college. The college is located near the Norfolk Naval base.
"I could look out his dorm and look at the ships; they're on ready alert," Madison said. "When I first took him down, in 2000, it was very casual. The military rolled around in the Jeeps with no guns. You go to Virginia-Norfolk area now, breathe hard and you're arrested. There is a sense of civility there. ...there's no nonsense. The ships are headed to sea. Langley Air Force Base is around the corner from his school. Planes fly all day in formation, and I'm like, 'Oh, my.'
"You know, I've seen it when it wasn't that way and now after 9/11, I see planes flying and ships ready, in war formation ... They're on alert.
"When you see military walking with M-16s, and .45s on their hips, flying into the airport, that's a little unsettling because, my life has ... I've heard about it but I've never seen it, but you walk into Norfolk Air Force, and they have M-16s and .45s on their hips. Live ammunition, that's ... "
"Chilling," Wright said.
"Yes it is," Madison answered.
Temporary: Eventually, however, that feeling should pass, as well as many of the attitudes and emotions that most Americans have expressed since Sept. 11, according to some of the employees.
"I think that's a temporary, what word do I want to say, temporary feeling or reaction to the situation," Coiner said. "I think if it hits you directly, 9/11, whether you have a relative that perished or you have a loved one that lost their job from it, yes, I think it's hit, the impact is stronger with that person than with us, that read in the paper, that see it on TV.
"It's just like anything else, if it hits home, directly home to you, it will be a lasting change. If it's not ..."
"That was then, this is now, it's over," Wales said.
"Until something jolts us back," Coiner added.
hill@vindy.com