Toll evaders made heroes - perverse NJ columnist Mulshine

Paul Mulshine, a columnist of the Newark Star-Ledger declared recently that all freedom loving people hate tolls. He claims that an anti-toll spirit is reflected in a 1975 trucker folk song by CW McCall called "Convoy" in which a trucker on the west coast decides to "put the hammer down" - accelerate away from the cops rather than pull over. Part spontaneously, partly by CB radio, likeminded rebel truckers with names like Pig Pen, Rubber Duck and Sodbuster form an ever-growing convoy determined to evade cops (called bear,  hogs, smokies in trucker CB talk) or crash road blocks right across the USA - from LA onto I-10, to I-44, to I-80 aiming for the Jersey shore.

[Chorus]
'Cause we got a little convoy
Rockin' through the night.
Yeah, we got a little convoy,
Ain't she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain't nothin' gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin' convoy
'Cross the U-S-A.
Convoy!

It's got a lot of musical zing to it, this song.

You've got to like it as folk music.

A YouTube of it here:

http://www.last.fm/music/C.W.+McCall/_/Convoy

and more on it here:

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3034

However unclear or improbable the plot, the song's got great rhythm, and there's a real charm to the trucker talk, their humor of understatement, and the rich metaphors:

By the time we got into Tulsa Town,
We had eighty-five trucks in all.
But they's (got) a roadblock up on the cloverleaf,
And them bears was wall-to-wall.
Yeah, them smokies is thick as bugs on a bumper;
They even had a bear in the air!
I says, "Callin' all trucks, this here's the Duck.
"We about to go a-huntin' bear."

[On the CB]
Ah, you wanna give me a 10-9 on that, Pig Pen? Negatory, Pig Pen; you're still too close. Yeah, them hogs is startin' to close up my sinuses. Mercy sakes, you better back off another ten.

Well, we rolled up Interstate 44
Like a rocket sled on rails.
We tore up all of our swindle sheets,
And left 'em settin' on the scales.
By the time we hit that Chi-town,
Them bears was a-gettin' smart:
They'd brought up some reinforcements
From the Illinois National Guard.
There's armored cars, and tanks, and jeeps,
And rigs of ev'ry size.
Yeah, them chicken coops was full'a bears
And choppers filled the skies.
Well, we shot the line and we went for broke
With a thousand screamin' trucks END QUOTE

Tolls don't even arise until the convoy gets all the way east to the Delaware River:

Well, we laid a strip for the Jersey shore
And prepared to cross the line
I could see the bridge was lined with bears
But I didn't have a dog-goned dime.
I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck.
"We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll."
So we crashed the gate doing ninety-eight
I says "Let them truckers roll, 10-4."

Convoy is not about tolls

Tolls aren't an issue in this song through toll-heavy states like Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois, or Pennsylvania. The Convoy truckers rebellion arising in California and gathering momentum in non-tolled states like Arizona and New Mexico is not about tolls at all. It's apparently about burdensome paperwork, the discriminatory and absurd 55mph truck speed limit of the time, truck inspections and resentment at inspectors and cops.

In the words of the song they run the toll gate at the Delaware River because they "just ain't a-gonna pay no toll."

That's an afterthought.  The theme of the song is resentment of the cops and the trucking law over non-toll issues in non-toll states.

Who would expect them to pay a toll if they'd defied the law over other issues and run from the police all the way across the country from Shakertown (LA or San Francisco?) to the New Jersey line at the Delaware River?

Anyway after quoting McCall's phrase about how the convoy "crashed (or 'trashed') the (toll) gate doing 98 (mph), I says 'Let them truckers roll' " Paul Mulshine writes: "Now that’s the spirit. It’s the spirit of the freedom-loving, toll-hating American driver…"

Hating tolls, loving taxes?

Mulshine may hate tolls, but most Americans don't. Surveys of public opinion repeatedly show they regard tolls as the lesser evil, compared to taxes for roads. They know that tax-funded roads are inferior to fee-funded or toll roads because the politicians get their hands on the tax money before it goes to the roads.

Therefore freedom loving Americans have steadfastly refused to go along with increases in taxes for roads.

Tolls represent an opportunity to bypass the corruption of politicians' tax-&-grant for roads by linking the revenues directly to the road.

Toll evaders are cheats and spongers

There's a long literary tradition of cultivating sympathy for outlaws - of making heroes of pirates, gang bosses, and bank robbers. Mulshine obviously sees himself as part of that.

It makes fun yarns and stirring music, but really it's sentimental nonsense - a romanticization of anti-social behavior.

But Mulshine's notion of toll evaders as "freedom loving" is plain weird. 

They are cheats and spongers.

They are petty thieves, like shoplifters. They are freeloaders.

They want other people to pay what they should be paying.

Someone who enters a toll facility knows the deal is 'You use, you pay.'

Regardless of who owns it, a toll road or toll bridge is a business.

It raised capital to construct the road or bridge based on the ability to charge a fee (called a toll) for use of the facility and it needs that revenue stream to pay for debt service and for maintenance.

To the extent there is toll evasion, someone else has to pay. Other customers pay, or shareholders pay.

There's absolutely nothing laudable about toll evasion.

Toll evaders are simple cheats. They are contemptible, and to see in them some 'love of freedom' is ridiculous. And morally perverse.

Finally, most tollers are now putting in place highway speed, open road toll systems precisely to 'Let them truckers roll' - editor.

Mulshine's anti-toll writings:

http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2010/08/convoy.html

http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2010/08/tolls_vs_freeways.html

TOLLROADSnews 2010-08-15