If quotas and race/sex set asides are good enough for high office, why are they not good for sports?
Last two weeks I’ve been basically off the net, attending a motorcycle rally in the northeast. While I’ve had limited social media interaction, one thing I did notice was the meme above. And it asks a simple question, what is the issue if you’re called a “DEI hire?”
On my way home I filled a bucket list item and visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton OH. Thankfully it’s not been infected by the “social justice” tripe pushed by the current NFL commissioner. It does have a section discussing how black players did have to overcome discrimination in the league.
As I was walking around, I found a 20-minute video hosted by Broadway Joe Namath on the history of the NFL. Two of the great players it covered were Warren Moon and Alan Page. Both had to get through historic racism, much of the “low expectations” form. But both men succeeded in football and beyond.
“Alan Page became a very successful member of the NFL, part of the “Purple People Eaters” of the Minnesota Vikings in the 60s and 70s. He was Rookie of the Year in 1967, and All Pro eight years straight (1970-1970). While playing football, he entered law school, receiving his JD from the University of Minnesota Law Center in 1978. In 1979 he entered private practice, and even served as an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1993 to 2015. Mr. Page and his daughter Kamie wrote two children’s books, and in 2018 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then President Donald Trump.”
“Warren Moon was an even more interesting history. Growing up in a poor single parent home in Los Angeles, he learned to sew, cook, and keep house to help his family. He concentrated on one sport, football, as he could throw a ball further and more accurately than anyone he knew. He started at quarterback in high school, and eventually was brought to the University of Washington where in his senior year Moon led the Huskies to Pac-8 Title and upset win in the Rose Bowl over Michigan.”
“Believing he would not be taken in the NFL Draft except as a receiver, Moon signed with the Canadian Football League Edmonton Eskimos, leading them to multiple championships, and becoming the first quarterback to pass for over 5,000 yards. He later signed with the Houston Oilers, playing with them for nine years. Moon played for Minnesota, Seattle, and Kansas City before retiring in 2001 at age 44 after 23 seasons.”
In his post football career, Mr. Moon has served as a mentor to other professional players, and his Crescent Moon Foundation provides scholarships to young people with limited resources for college.
I’ve not visited the MLB Hall of Fame, or the NBA Hall of Fame, but my recent visit to Canton brings up a simple question. If we will only accept the best in our professional athletes, or in our captains of industry, or college sports, why is it we keep electing complete incompetents to our higher offices?
An insult to then President Eisenhower’s first cabinet was it was composed of “Eight millionaires and a plumber” (The Secretary of Labor was the former head of the Plumber’s Union). While he wasn’t the first president to bring in successful businessmen into government service, they dominated the group. Almost seventy years later a similar meaningless insult was used on then President Trump’s cabinet.
It raises the question, what is it with Ivy League graduates that make them so qualified for high office? It’s definitely not success outside of college. Anyone want to explain Joe Biden’s great success in business, academe, or any endeavor? That’s right, you can’t (Except enriching himself through bribes from our enemies as “The Big Guy”). After a lack luster college career and getting elected to the senate at age 29, Biden was selected by then Senator Obama as his running mate. As the Vice President, his only useful purpose seems to be assassination insurance for then President Obama. When tasked with overseeing the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the almost one trillion-dollar boondoggle provided approximately 7% for “shovel ready jobs,” the rest was pork.
Our current Vice President and presumed Democratic nominee was tasked with securing our southern border. In less than four years, the number of illegal aliens crossing the border has more than tripled and the use of “catch and release” has insured more future Democratic voters will flood out cities and states. We can only assume if Ms. Harris becomes president her selected Veep will work to break her record.
Can we do better? We have on occasion. In 1991, then President George H. W. Bush selected Marvin Runyon as the Postmaster General. On his first meeting with the upper bureaucracy of the Postal Service, Mr. Runyon made two quick points. “One, I am not from this organization, so I owe none of you favors. Two, if you do not place your hands on the mail on a daily basis, you job is in jeopardy.” An efficiency expert with experience at Ford Motors and the Tennessee Valley Authority, Runyon “shed over 23,000 managerial jobs, hired more mail carriers and clerks, then pushed automation to make service more efficient.” By all accounts, he pushed the Postal Service forward and made it more serving to the customer. The US taxpayer.
We need to purge the college-bureaucracy complex from higher government positions. We need to draw the best from our society, not the people whose families and friends are already embedded into government and looking for another make work position.
One his first day in office, then President Ronal Reagan initiated a federal hiring freeze for all departments except for military recruiting. Good idea. But a more recent event make be more appropriate.
In 2019, the Trump administration proposed moving two agencies — the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the Economic Research Service — far away from Washington. The greater Kansas City area was selected, welcoming over 500 high paying federal jobs. You would think the bureaucrats would look forward to moving into a much lower cost of living, and quite frankly, safer area than the District of Columbia.
Over half retired rather than move. Sounds like their purpose is not “public service” but personal advancement. Perhaps the two agencies can learn to “do more with less” (Any military veteran can remember being lectured by Pentagon bureaucrats with those words as their staffing grew and grew).
But over half the overpaid staff left. What would you call that? Like 600 lawyers chained by their necks on the bottom of the ocean, it’s a good start.
Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch.
Opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers.
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