THE MERIT SYSTEM.

https://thousandpointsofright.blogspot.com/2017/05/more-women-black-latino-and-asian-file.html
 
68jk09 said:
https://thousandpointsofright.blogspot.com/2017/05/more-women-black-latino-and-asian-file.html
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It's VERY SAD to me that the FDNY, or any other fire department, has to be so concerned about hiring firefighters based on "WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE".

I've known GREAT Firefighters who looked very different from each other. Members from not only the FDNY, but many other departments as well.

My father was hired as a firefighter in 1948 and one of his first captains was a GREAT GUY who looked different but had a Great Reputation as a firefighter. Nobody counted then. It really didn't matter.

One of my best friends father was the MPO of the busiest engine company in the city. It didn't matter what he looked like to me or those other guys he worked with. But for me as a "young buff - wanna be", as far as I was concerned, there was no other MPO throughout the city that I had more respect for.

Both my fathers captain and this MPO were World War II veterans. They had fought the same war my father did, and applied for the same job, around the same time. But nobody was worried about counting how people looked then. 

Strangely, it mattered for me around 1976 when I applied to work at the same fire department that they had worked. It mattered so much that the hiring list was tied up for two years in court over it. After the decision was made to hire people because of what they looked like, guys like myself left and went other places to become firefighters. It's SAD that these guys that went other places proved themselves over the years and most have since retired from those other departments. They all left because of the way they looked, no other reason.

I hope the FDNY doesn't do what this place did. Hired people based solely on the way they looked. Because if that happens to be the case, the citizens and visitors to the City of New York will most likely loose out on getting the BEST future members of the FDNY. And many well qualified candidates will most likely end up going to another city where their services will be greatly appreciated for their skills, and NOT THEIR LOOKS.

 
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