Everyone’s Opinion is Important

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Several years ago I bought a used car from a new car dealer. That kind of purchase is recommended, as most cars at new car dealers come from trade-ins and not auctions, so the cars should be better. This one was no exception as it was traded in on a new car. The vehicle was in fantastic condition; new paint, new vinyl roof and carpet, as well as no blemishes on the interior. Even the transmission was rebuilt. I was able to get the car for only $1100 because I was paying cash and no trade in. I was very happy with my purchase.

The car ran and drove very well, everything worked and it looked great. I was enjoying driving the car, and as the sun was setting, I turned on my headlights. That is when I noticed the problem with the car. The radio started emitting static as well as music, and the dashboard lights flickered from dim to bright, staying mostly dim. Depressing the brake pedal or activating the turn signal only made the already dim even dimmer. Taking the car back to the selling dealer was not an option; the car was sold “as-is”, and this was before the days of extended warranties. I had the alternator and battery checked and they passed. Most of the mechanics I spoke with thought it was a wiring problem that would require time and money to diagnose and repair. My spotless purchase was looking as if it was going to turn out to be an expensive one.

I am a mechanically inclined person, but I would not want to re-wire an entire car. However, one afternoon I had the hood raised and was just looking around the engine compartment. This car was from the seventies, so there was a lot of room for components in the engine bay; nothing was crammed in there as is the case today. I just happened to notice on the passenger side that the woven copper grounding strap that stretches from the engine to the firewall was broken in half. I did not think it could be that simple, but I grabbed a set of booster cables, and used one of the clamps to hold the strap together. When I started the car and turned on the lights, there was no static on the radio, and the dashboard did not dim. The strap was probably stretched and broken when the transmission was removed to facilitate rebuilding, and no one caught it. I removed the strap and soldered it back together, fastened it back in place. Problem solved.

This article is not about the car, that story is just to illustrate a point; experts are people just like you and I, and they are not always right, just like you and I. When there was simply print material, journalism was restricted to what could be printed in a book, magazine or newspaper. Radio came along and expanded the field, and television expanded it even further. The only restriction on journalistic participation was the length of the show, or the space in the publication. Now we have the Internet, and that resource has no space or time limitations. There is room for everyone’s voice to be heard; everyone’s opinions and experiences related for other’s to read and enjoy.

Triond gives all of us that opportunity to express our thoughts, feelings, and knowledge. All of us who write on here feel we have something important to say, and we do. If you stop and think about it, traditional sources of information and entertainment, are declining in popularity. Even move theaters are closing in the face of optical disk sales and direct to Internet movie streaming. More and more content is delivered via the Internet, and there is more than enough room for all of us here. If it is important to you it is going to be important to someone else as well. So keep writing, and enjoy the opportunity that Triond and the Internet offers to all of us!