During our round-trip drive to Austin, Texas, my wife and I were reminded of the Lou Dobbs Moneyline program, entitled "Exporting America." The CNN special aired the views of concerned politicians and analysts regarding America's steadily declining manufacturing sector, our service industry being sent offshore, IT specialists losing their jobs, and what's being done to put some recovery in America's "jobless recovery."

One of the show's analysts warned, "If America's manufacturing sector doesn't pick up, there may not be a recovery." Another agreed, adding, "But what are American workers going to make in the future (that can't be made more competitively off-shore)?"

We saw arrests of undocumented workers being made by Border Patrol agents along the Mexican border. A local paper said more are being made at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport, where, ". . . smugglers transport 200 to 300 undocumented immigrants (every week), taking advantage of the airport's proximity to the border, cheap air fares from cities in the Far East and a network of 'drop houses' in Phoenix." Workers illegally crossing our southern border on foot to work at bottom tech jobs have become an integral part of our society; and the faltering Mexican economy relies on the money they send home. The more affluent illegals try to sneak in by air, while legally entering foreign workers fly in to fill high tech jobs in professions like nursing and software writing.

Pete Bennett, a currently unemployed American IT specialist, got so angry at being displaced that he started www.nomoreh1b.com, where he publishes items such as, "Approximately 800,000 highly skilled U.S. workers are now unemployed as a direct result of Congress's . . . legislation, which failed to include any protection for U.S. workers. Employers may hire foreign workers even when equally qualified Americans are available, and may lay off Americans in the same job category."

Click around on Mr. Bennett's website and you'll get to that of the more conservative Forrester Research Co. at www.forrester.com, whose economic pundits predict that 3.3 million jobs in the IT service industry and $136 B in wages will go to India, China, the Phillipines, Russia and other countries in the coming decade.

After having a fine time and some great barbecue with our friends in Austin, Suzy and I picked up our reserved Budget rental car at the airport for our return home. It promptly blew a coolant hose, stranding us fifty miles from the airport. When a similar replacement car wasn't immediately available, I promptly blew my patience and told Suzy to call another rental firm. She called Alamo, told me they could have a mid-sized car waiting when we got back to the airport—at a premium price for the one-way trip. As I mulled it over, she added, "By the way, when I asked Alamo's customer service man, he said he was in India. Remember Brandy, that nice young woman at the Budget counter I talked with about the broken hose? She said she'd do her best to get us an upgrade replacement car by tomorrow morning." So we spent another night in Austin, and had a fine dinner with our friends. Two days later, at the end our very comfortable drive to San Diego, a billing question about the replacement car arose, whereupon Anna, the nice young woman at the Budget rental return desk called Brandy and sent us happily on our way at the originally quoted mid-sized price.

Since then I have reflected on the issues involved with Exporting America, and what might be done by us puny citizens to salvage and even recoup the loss of American manufacturing and service jobs.

Some people have already given up on salvaging our service sector. In Fortune's June issue, Atul Vashistha, CEO of NeoIT in badly depressed Silicon Valley, said, "It's the flip side of globalization. What happened to (America's) manufacturing over the last 25 years is now happening in services. You can't really fight it."

But you can try. I don't think my belated show of patience saved Brandy's and Anna's jobs from immediate export. I'll be taking time enough in the future to ask the location of a corporation's service center every time I talk on the phone with a service rep. I also know we'll be renting our cars from Budget as long as we can talk face to face with flexibly helpful people like Brandy and Anna.

What about turning around those last 25 years of manufacturing job losses? Neither tariffs nor anti-dumping laws have worked in the past, and boycotts are anti-capitalistic and impossible to sustain. A great many people, and some of you, complain that it's increasingly difficult to Buy American. But if it is patiently and wisely used, the simplistic practice still carries some weight.

Those on the buying end of it have to look for the label revealing the country of a product's origin, and if it's not "Made in USA," decide if they can be patient enough to find an American-made equivalent whose better quality might outweigh its somewhat higher price. On the selling end of it, wise firms like Cooper Tires are making it easier to Buy American by posting banners at their retail outlets declaring American Owned, Quality Made. Also, when a failing Ohio manufacturer of whistles was purchased by Ray Giesse, he modernized its manufacturing methods, wisely renamed it American Whistle, and changed its logo and image enough to land some high-profile accounts like Wal-Mart.

We thank Ron Daniels, the publisher of www.Circuitnet.com, for reprinting some of our thoughts about saving American jobs. Circuitnet's large circulation elicited many stimulating responses from his readers, and in his editorial on the subject, Daniels said, "I believe that a real solution will be found through a combination of government action and more important, a new method of conducting business." Cooper Tires and American Whistle exemplify a new and disarmingly simple method of conducting business. But what about that government action Ron mentioned, which one of our readers said, "Always seems to come too late."

One of the letters to Circuitnet came from IPC's Dennis McGuirk, who heads a trade association employing a full-time Washington lobbyist for preserving the U.S. manufacturing sector. McGuirk's letter listed six specific efforts currently being made by the lobbyist, all of them very commendable, but none of them covering all the legislation needed to stop Exporting America. You can lobby for these bills without getting up from your computer by writing your congressional advocates in Washington, urging them to support the efforts of Senator Fritz Hollings (D), South Carolina, who has introduced a Senate bill to keep more American jobs in America; and Charlie Rangel (D) CA, and Phillip Crane (R) IL, who have presented a similar bill to the House of Representatives. In addition, Rep. John Mica (R) FL, whose bill will prevent U.S. companies from hiring foreigners with L-1 visas. These bills should be supported by all elected legislators who place the importance of jobs in American ahead of rampant globalization.

If you agree with us, we urge you to start writing your legislators now, well before these important bills will be decided upon in October.