Sometimes, we get numb to the news of the moment.
War atrocities in Ukraine? Where's the remote?
Fires in California? Time to take the dog out.
Shortage of baby formula? Let's go see the latest Top Gun movie.
With all of the news these days—most of it bad and beyond our control to change—it's no wonder we might hear tragic news, ponder it a moment, then resume life as we know it.
One tragedy, however, made me stop and think. And think. And think some more.
The shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24 that claimed the lives of 19 innocent school children and two brave adults hit particularly hard, well beyond the usual empathy we feel when tragedies such as these occur outside of our ZIP codes.
Anyone with a pulse feels the pain from this senseless killing and compassion for the victims and their families.
Losing a child is difficult. Losing a child or wife or mother like this is incomprehensible.
But for me, and really our industry, this tragedy is different. And it has nothing to do with the gun control debate that is raging throughout the country.
Uvalde, a town of 15,000-plus residents located 82 miles southwest of San Antonio, is home to Continental Tire the Americas L.L.C.'s Uvalde Proving Grounds (UPC), a 5,000-acre site dedicated to tire testing. Continental has operated the facility since it purchased General Tire in 1987.