Carmichael's Position

Now That’s What I Call a “Management Retreat”

The beauty of being involved with a small successful company is occasionally we have to get together, away from the daily grind to establish some plans for the future of the company… oh… and take a bit of a breather.

The two senior executives decided it would be good to get away for a bit, and were nice enough to bring the two Junior Executives along…

It was 5 days of roughing it, but hell… I’ve always been know to take one for the team!  Here’s some idea of how brutal our meetings were…

Yep… 5 days at Cabo Del Sol – Fiesta Americana Resort!  With plenty of activities thrown in for good measure!  Like:

The Beach…

The Pool!

The Beach…

Oh… then of course we had to play golf… 

And then… back to the hotel… to watch some of the locals swim by…

All to be up in the morning for the next day’s efforts!

But again we had to watch how long we let these meetings run so we could make our dinner meetings too…

Out to see the sights…

Oh, and whilst we were on our little cruise, wouldn’t you know it? The damn sun went down!

We just had to head back to the hotel and enjoy the evening…

We turned in early in preparation for a rough day… Fishing…

Oh sure looks peaceful and serene now…

But once around nature’s natural breakwater… uh… notsomuch!

 

However… Sandy and Ryan took it all in stride…

Me?  I was loving it!  I loved being at sea again!  Especially in 10 footers!  But hell… I had fish to catch!… so I did!

Not big… But fun!  We ended up catching 3 Sierra Mackerel like these.  I caught one and our “Fishing Virgin” of the bunch Ryan (that’s right NEVER caught a fish before… not even on a pond!) caught 2 more.  (If you look close below you can even see the fish breaking the water near the top of the left image as Ryan reels him in.)

 

We got shut out the rest of the day… but that’s ok too… time on the Pacific is ALL GOOD!

One of the most shocking things we saw was as we entered the harbor.  I looked over at another returning fishing boat and was surprised to see something other than a mermaid on the swim deck!

Yep that’s a full grown California Sea Lion!  Probably in the neighborhood of 4 or 5 Rosie O'Donnell’s… (ok maybe only 2…) but a good 1,500lbs at least!  Once he tired of their boat he made a bee line over to our transom!

Amazing!  But alas this was not the only native that knew a returning boat often bears great treats.  Upon our arrival at the slip we were greeted by a few pelicans (my personal favorite bird).

 

All in all it was a great trip… and I want to thank Sandy, Kevin, Ryan, for a fun and successful first Management Retreat!

Seriously Insulting to Blacks! Or at least it should be!

Evidently the testing standards to become a police officer in the City of Dayton Ohio are too stringent for Blacks. 

The Dayton Police Department is lowering its testing standards for recruits.

It's a move required by the U.S. Department of Justice after it says not enough African-Americans passed the exam.   

What the…????

This is where many, including me, have a serious problem with Quotas, Affirmative Action, or Modified Standards!

We’ve got to stop this focus on “Equality of Outcome!”  The continuing trend of lowering standards to accommodate those who cannot meet the standards because of some ill-conceived notion that a certain ethnic class is less capable than another ethnic class represents a more racist mentality than any previous efforts by the KKK, Black Panthers, or similarly oppressive groups.  And this effort comes direct from your “All men are created equal” US Government!… Enforced by the Department of Justice!  (More and more an oxymoron if ever there was one…)

Under the previous requirements, candidates had to get a 66% on part one of the exam and a 72% on part two.

The D.O.J. approved new scoring policy only requires potential police officers to get a 58% and a 63%.  That's the equivalent of an ‘F’ and a ‘D’.

Fortunately the local chapter of the NAACP (an organization I am not usually in agreement with, seems to have a problem with this as well… the skeptic in me questions how long this will last,… once they learn they are in accord with me…)

“The NAACP does not support individuals failing a test and then having the opportunity to be gainfully employed,” agreed Dayton NAACP President Derrick Foward…

“If you lower the score for any group of people, you're not getting the best qualified people for the job,” Foward said.

But indeed this is exactly the point, if you want to put an end to discrimination and stereotyping then we are going to have to do away with actions that create questions in the qualifications of people because of their color.  Put yourself in the shoes of an officer who is Black and scored a record high score on the entrance exams?  Simply because of his race he will now be implicated by these “Modified Standards” as having been being catered to when nothing can be further from the truth.  This is unacceptable! 

But yet…

“The D.O.J. has forced other police departments across the country to lower testing standards, citing once again that not enough black candidates were passing.”

By fiat the D.O.J. is declaring that many individuals CANNOT meet the standards set forth to become a police officer simply because they are… no, not incapable… but BLACK!

We need to keep standards where they are, if you cannot pass then… Tough Shit!  And thank god you cannot represent a force that has a set of minimum requirements of only 66% and 72%!  Really???  You want people who cannot meet this minimum “Protecting and Serving” you?

Respect is earned!  Not granted… and lowering standards simply lowers the respect of the rest of the force, and the rest of the public.  And to associate this to RACE is asinine and insulting to African Americans!  It needs to stop if we are ever to progress to a “color-blind” society.