Senator Bill Bradley Captivates Crowd in Salt Lake City

PRLog (Press Release) – May 19, 2008 – Senator Bill Bradley told a story of a new America on Sunday, May 4 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.   Introduced by Randy Shadley, CAFM, the Vice President of NAFA Fleet Management Association, the former basketball star towered on stage as the Keynote Speaker for NAFA's 2008 Institute & Expo.

There were no jokes or illusions– rather, Bradley started with a heart warming story about a boy with cancer who wanted so badly to receive letters from his friends at camp that his own mother started writing him as a secret pen pal. The boy wrote his secret pal regularly and would ask his mother to mail the letters. One day his mother opened a letter that her son had written and on the paper was a sentence that read, "I love you mom".  The boy later passed away and in memory of her son she began sending letters to all of his friends back at the camp for children with cancer. This mother, named Linda Bremner, is the Founder of Love Letters: Random Cards of Kindness, Inc. and it was her son Andy who died.

The audience fell silent as Bradley told this inspiring story and then bent towards the microphone and softly said, "We have to come together as a world."

Bradley went on to say that if America was to continue to compete on a global level, the nation must start focusing on education, increase financial savings and decrease our dependence on oil. The author, Olympic gold medalist and former Democratic presidential candidate, spoke of issues contained in his latest book, The New American Story, where he urges Americans to focus on those three topics as well as taking individual responsibility.

"We're in the grip of an old story," Bradley said. "It's not the original American story, but an old story. Essentially, it's a ‘can't do' story.  As in we can't make sure every public school in America is world class; we can't make sure everybody has access to health care; we can't break our addiction to oil and on and on. But that is an untrue story. We are a ‘can do' people."

Bradley also discussed his ideas for education which include paying teachers more money and letting them set their own standards while being held accountable by the results. Regarding the current oil situation, he suggested taxing those who choose to drive larger SUV's and giving rebates for the use of more fuel efficient vehicles.  In addition, he believes the United States should set the same miles per gallon standards as used in Europe.

"If we're not going to be the same auto industry we were five years ago – where is our choke hold? It's in our education system," he said.

Bradley also warned that Americans must simply cut spending rather than continue to live on borrowed dollars.

The Senator received a standing ovation and audience members followed him to the Expo Hall where he greeted fans and signed his newest book, The New American Story.

Senator Bradley continued NAFA's tradition of diverse Keynote Speakers for the Institute & Expo.  Recent years have featured Gordon Bethune, the former CEO and Chairman of the Board of Continental Airlines; Dave Barry, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist; and Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

About NAFA Fleet Management
NAFA Fleet Management Association, Inc. is a not-for-profit, individual membership professional society serving the needs of Members who manage fleets of automobiles, SUVs, trucks, vans and a wide range of specialized mobile equipment for organizations in the United States and Canada.   NAFA's Full and Associate Members are responsible for the specification, acquisition, maintenance and disposal of more than 3.5 million vehicles – including in excess of 1.1 million trucks.  In fact, NAFA Members across the North American continent have more than 350,000 medium- and heavy-duty trucks in their fleets, totaling more than $21 billion dollars in assets for medium- and heavy-duty trucks alone.