Published: May 21, 2009 09:48 pm      

Mayor must travel to Italy

Ever wonder why television replaced radio as the dominant electronic medium? More effective storytelling has to be one reason.

Radio stars such as Orson Welles and Will Rogers could tell a good yarn. But good storytelling isn’t just oral. It’s visual.

Backdrops and scene locations communicate place. Buildings and clothes set time. On the radio, actors conveyed emotion through speech. Facial expressions, hand gestures, even posture often say more than words in film and on stage.

This is why we support a trip to Turin, Italy, by Mayor Greg Goodnight. He has an important story to tell.

Chrysler LLC employs more than 4,500 in Kokomo and is this community’s largest. As its Kokomo work force is on furlough, company executives are working out a plan to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with automaker Fiat as its partner.

Community leaders like Goodnight and Jeb Conrad, director of the Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance, are working on dates for an oversees visit at Fiat’s world headquarters. A Howard County commissioner and representative of United Auto Workers Local 685 also should consider making such a trip.

With unemployment at 14.6 percent and likely to edge higher, as Delphi Corp. adjusts to reduced vehicle production at General Motors Corp. and other carmakers, job retention is paramount in Kokomo’s economic recovery.

Our representatives can tell the Italians of our work force, experienced in advanced manufacturing processes in assembling transmissions or electrical circuits. They can tell of the UAW’s roll in community projects and fundraisers for human-services agencies. They call tell of our place in automotive history.

The first carburetor was developed in Kokomo, and its decedents fed Fiat engines for generations.

Fiat executives invited Goodnight to Turin for a visit. He should go. It’s the polite thing to do. It’s the right thing to do.

He has an opportunity to build relationships. And relationships are made only through face-to-face meetings.