With the Supreme Court nominee hearings underway and Sotomayer's comment about how much better she is than a white guy (I am paraphrasing, of course) has gotten me thinking.
If you have read me for any amount of time, you would know that I love Booker T.Washington. His advice / philosophy transcends black - white - purple.
So....how much farther would this Country be without quotas? Honestly. It would have been rough there in the beginning - having to prove you (not "you" but "you" - you know what I mean) are "just as good" by being twice as good, but after 40 years, I think we would be a little farther down the line than we are now. Could it be that we would be color-blind now?
I want a big guy carrying me out of burning building and not a chick who happened to do good on the written part of the test and passed the watered down physical part to get her job....
I also wonder how it is for non-white, non-male med students and ultimately, doctors. Do people question their competence? Do people wonder if they got their jobs because they were the best or because they met some arbitrary quota for color?
Would Non-White doctors be sought after today as being the TOPS in their field BECAUSE of the hurdles they had jumped through.... Would it mean that the position a person holds would get the respect it deserves?
I question whether Ms. Sotomayor is really as smart as the other white guys on the court....And I hate that I do.....
But of course, that would not keep those in power, in power - if you had to earn votes by the content of your character and not by the color of your skin....well, lets just say that Chicago politics would never be the same.
Its not a politically correct topic - but as my momma said as I was growing up..."Im not out to win a popularity contest with you...." I am also totally relying on the good will of my readers that wont skew what I write and give me the benefit of the doubt if something strikes you as wonky. (I love that word "wonky" - It rivals "hinky" which I also love.)
Keep it up - Pray - Praise - Prepare
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Pearls, bless your heart. You reminded of a horrifying moment (that turned out to be wonderful) I had with my daughter 12 years ago.
I was in my shop working on a complex problem when my (then) 22 year old, 6' tall daughter burst in and blurted that she was going to take her final fireman's physical exam by carrying a 150 pound dummy down 7 flights of stairs in so many seconds (the guys have to do the same thing with a 200 pound dummy).
Without thinking, I blurted back that I hope some big guy comes to my rescue instead of a lady, I weigh 210 pounds.
As soon as those words were out of my mouth I would have given anything in the world to take them back. My wife and I are not negative, but positive reinforcement type parents. I also knew that what I said was true to my beliefs. I let it stand. My daughter left and went about her business.
Apparently she forgave me, but not another word was said about her fireman stuff for six months, not one word. Then one day she walked into my shop (without banging the door for a change) and said, "Daddy?"
I heard her tears before I saw them, and whatever I was doing was instantly forgotten. "Whats wrong Honey?"
"I passed the fireman's test Daddy." She was crying now, and I was totally confused.
"Whats wrong Sweetheart?"
"I passed the mans fireman's test Daddy, with a 200 pound dummy. Nobody is going to loose their daddy because of me!"
Yeah Pearls, I am very proud of her. She is a Lieutenant now, and mother of two. She spares us most of the stories firemen share of their ordeals. But every so often I get a special hug and there is a certain glint in her eyes, and I know she saved some big guy... because she could.
I have never been politically correct. I speak my mind, and Sam says it all. If you qualify to the high standards you get the job.
I have been in business for 47 years. My motto: Hire the best-fire the rest. Works for me.
Today a lot of the best are quitting due to overbearing government control. I am one of them. August 12th will end it. I will miss it very much.
Loved every word of this, little girl. I wonder if those nonwhite nonmale med students even think about why they are there. i wonder if they think they are entitled to be there and let it go at that.
i loved the fireman story. his daughter pushed herself to be better, do better and proved to herself she could do it because it was important.....and isn't that why we are here-to do what is important for someone else, not ourselves.
sorry for the long post......love you.
I don't like the way the administration and Senate leadership are using Sotomayor to divert attention from their Hate Crimes bill. S. 909 is on the fast track - and defines a hate crime as *not* including caucasion (white) heterosexual victims. What the bill defines as "protected classes" (non-caucasion) becomes a different class of citizen under the law. The bill has already been release to the Senate floor.
As to Ms. Sotomayor, every candidate for the Supreme Court has faced legitimate concerns and criticism. Usually a lifetime of disparaging the law hasn't been one of them. And I still want to know want to know what Obama did to convince - or offend - Justic Souter into quitting.
Sam - BLESS YOUR HEART! What an excellent daughter you raised. She took on a tougher test KNOWING she could have passed the easier one and risked not fulfilling a dream. I wonder how impressed those who administered the test were :) Grown men dont pass that test!!!
Quotas and affirmative action are foolish. If prejudice is wrong, and judging a person on anything other than their own merits is prejudice, then I wonder why Jesse and Al, and doubtless the Reverend White and others are so in favor of quotas.
I can tell you that quotas have screwed me out of many a job... I've also seen them screw many other well qualified folks out of jobs. Personally, if I were a "minority" I'd be pissed at having been hired as a "token" whatever... I want to be evaluated on my skills and experience, period. That's the way it should be.
"I want a big guy carrying me out of burning building and not a chick who happened to do good on the written part of the test and passed the watered down physical part to get her job...."
All I can say to that is if my child ever falls down a well or is trapped in a collapsed building that there is a 4'8" 80lb rescue worker available to squeeze in there and get to them. I'm all for the most demanding physical standards but there are a few times when being big limits where you can go. Being PC should not have anything to do with choosing people for the job. I figure in a fire department with 100 firefighters you probably need 95 big husky guys and 5 skinny little girls to cover the most likely scenarios.
Sam, I'M proud of your daughter, and I've never met her. You raised her right. Well done, sir.
Pearls, quotas and affirmative action are socialist/communist tools. Competence and quality are irrelevant, meeting government mandated "equality" targets is the only ends.
Look how well that's turned out.
One of my sons (a fellow white male) is wrapping up his paramedic training right now. We were talking today about whether he would go the firefighter route or just the medic side. He's leaning towards the latter, which doesn't make sense to me.
He does not take well to failure (he finished up number 2 in the first section of his training, and it really pissed him off!). Perhaps he sees that the odds are stacked against him, so it's not worth the pain and effort. I need to ask him about this.
Sad, if true.
Excellent post and some very good thoughts, including the ones in the comments.
A lot of wisdom to be had here...
Bitmap--right on!
My ex-father in law was a B-25 tail gunner back in WW Dos. He stood about 5'2" and might have weighed 110 after a big Thanksgiving Day feast. He was the only one in his crew who could fit back there, so he was "nominated".
Lots of B-25s came back safe because of the "little guys".
Old Squid.
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