One Man's Opinion: New Haven Connecticut Fire Department Ruling

Here we are, with another installment of ´One Man´s Opinion´. And I want to start off by apologizing to the American Chronicle as well as my readers for not writing for so long. Working on my first novel has been taking up a lot of my time, but I figured that tonight I would take some time out.

So a lot of things have been going on since my last article. We lost two great people in Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, and of course another case of celebrities getting away (in this case literally) with murder in the Donte Stallworth DUI manslaughter of a Florida construction worker. Now the latter I will get into at a later date, however there is something that has caught my interest.

In New Haven, Connecticut there was a test administered to see who would qualify for promotions among the city´s Fire Department. Of the fire fighters that took the test, the only ones that passed were seventeen white fire fighters, and two Hispanic. Since none of those that passed were black, the test was thrown out.

These fire fighters rightfully went to the Court of Appeals and the Court ruled against them, so the case was taken to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the fire fighters were wronged and that their test scores would be upheld.

Now, as a black man, I am very happy by this decision. It has been driving me absolute insane that there are people that were for these fire fighters to be denied their rightful promotions because they aren´t black. These same people are now whining up a storm because the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the fire fighters.

Now why is this fair? Why is it that because these fire fighters aren´t black, they don´t deserve a promotion? Obviously the black fire fighters that couldn´t pass the test means that they do not have the ability to be the best candidates for the job. It has nothing to do with race; it has everything to do with who is best qualified for the positions of employment.

Now, Affirmative Action was put into place to protect those that were qualified for jobs, but were kept from them due to race. Now while I do agree that Affirmative Action should still be in place, it does not mean that because of race you should be put into a position if you are not good for it.

Personally, I don´t care what color the fire fighter that comes to my house to save it from fire is, so long as they can save my home from burning down, or get myself and my family out if we are, Lord forbid, trapped inside.

I have been saying it for quite sometime, and I will continue to say it; why does everything have to be chalked up to race?

In the end, the people that are sitting there whining about how this decision is racist need to open their eyes and realize that they need to grow up. How is it wrong that people that didn´t pass the test don´t get promoted, but the people that worked hard to pass the test don´t get promoted either?

Does that mean then that a person who wants to be a pilot but cannot pass the prerequisites for the position should get to be a pilot just because of the color of their skin? Or, should the person that can pass the prerequisites, despite their color, be allowed to be a pilot? Its standard common sense really when you truly think about it.

So seriously people, let´s stop trying to give opportunities to people that don´t earn them. If you do not have the credentials, and skill to do a job, then you shouldn´t get the promotions that a person with the skills and credentials should, plain and simple.