Friday, March 10, 2006
The Monty Sedlak Affair
Proverbs 18:13-
He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him.
I was alerted to a story going around about an incident where a government employee was forced to remove a hat saying "US Border Patrol" and cover a sign on his truck reading in part "English Speaking American", over a US flag. The supervisor was a man named Monty Sedlak and Mike Gray was the employee. Sedlak writes, in part, "Some of your conduct ... is reprehensible and discriminatory to our non-English speaking and/or Hispanic workforce. You are in violation of ... guidelines which ensure a workplace free from harassment and sensitive to the diversity of employees." It sounds like a story of hypersensitive PC-ism run amuck, like many other stories we've heard in recent years. Here's some links to some sites taking just that stance. I am not sure of all the legal issues involved, though I usually trust The Volokh Conspiracy for those kinds of matters, and they say there's nothing illegal about this at all:
But as the proverb warns us, there is often more to the story than first appears.
I happen to know Monty Sedlak from way back. He is a conservative Christian, not a liberal politically, not a Democrat. He is an elder in a very conservative church. I haven't spoken to him about this incident. But the thought of Monty getting caught up in some left-wing moonbattery is just too unbelievable.
Consider a possible scenario: A guy is becoming known on a job site for being a racist and a bully, intimidating the Mexican workers. There's nothing concrete, though, nothing you could actually discipline a guy for. Given his known attitudes and behavior, though, his hat and his sign "ENGLISH SPEAKING AMERICAN" take on a different tone, a part of the intimidation. So you take hold of what you can, prohibiting those things to hopefully get hold of this intimidation.
Is this an impossible scenario? And did all of these right-wing sites consider this before they lumped this in with all the other PC garbage that's out there? Do we conservatives know no one that uses their so-called conservativism as an excuse to bully and intimidate people? The fact that some of these sites are saying that Mr. Gray is being forced to cover up a flag is just a demonstration of their disingenuousness. It is the speech on top of the flag which is the problem, not the flag.
Monty Sedlak is a human being. And he's doing a government job, where he has the obligation to implement a lot of procedures and policies that he may not even agree with. All anyone's heard is just one small part of the story. And the fact that they are willing to make definitive pronouncements on what's going on based only on this limited information makes them, according to the Bible, fools.
He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him.
I was alerted to a story going around about an incident where a government employee was forced to remove a hat saying "US Border Patrol" and cover a sign on his truck reading in part "English Speaking American", over a US flag. The supervisor was a man named Monty Sedlak and Mike Gray was the employee. Sedlak writes, in part, "Some of your conduct ... is reprehensible and discriminatory to our non-English speaking and/or Hispanic workforce. You are in violation of ... guidelines which ensure a workplace free from harassment and sensitive to the diversity of employees." It sounds like a story of hypersensitive PC-ism run amuck, like many other stories we've heard in recent years. Here's some links to some sites taking just that stance. I am not sure of all the legal issues involved, though I usually trust The Volokh Conspiracy for those kinds of matters, and they say there's nothing illegal about this at all:
"Sorry, Mr. Gray, the government is your employer, and it may forbid speech at the workplace that it thinks is offensive to other workers, even if you think your boss is being hypersensitive..."
But as the proverb warns us, there is often more to the story than first appears.
I happen to know Monty Sedlak from way back. He is a conservative Christian, not a liberal politically, not a Democrat. He is an elder in a very conservative church. I haven't spoken to him about this incident. But the thought of Monty getting caught up in some left-wing moonbattery is just too unbelievable.
Consider a possible scenario: A guy is becoming known on a job site for being a racist and a bully, intimidating the Mexican workers. There's nothing concrete, though, nothing you could actually discipline a guy for. Given his known attitudes and behavior, though, his hat and his sign "ENGLISH SPEAKING AMERICAN" take on a different tone, a part of the intimidation. So you take hold of what you can, prohibiting those things to hopefully get hold of this intimidation.
Is this an impossible scenario? And did all of these right-wing sites consider this before they lumped this in with all the other PC garbage that's out there? Do we conservatives know no one that uses their so-called conservativism as an excuse to bully and intimidate people? The fact that some of these sites are saying that Mr. Gray is being forced to cover up a flag is just a demonstration of their disingenuousness. It is the speech on top of the flag which is the problem, not the flag.
Monty Sedlak is a human being. And he's doing a government job, where he has the obligation to implement a lot of procedures and policies that he may not even agree with. All anyone's heard is just one small part of the story. And the fact that they are willing to make definitive pronouncements on what's going on based only on this limited information makes them, according to the Bible, fools.
Comments:
It is too bad that Monty is caught up in this. I am sure he does not need the headache. Of course, you can't really blame the bloggers for being a little reactionary sometimes. The left has jammed its propaganda down their throats for years. The resulting anger causes some to paint with a very wide brush. We know Monty, so we know that there must be more to the story. They don't have that luxury.
I have learned not to use blogs as sources in my writing, unless it is a matter of opinion. For matters of fact, professional news organizations are much more reliable, although you never really get the entire story. If one is to comment on current events, one has to take the risk of playing the occasional fool.
Andrew
I have learned not to use blogs as sources in my writing, unless it is a matter of opinion. For matters of fact, professional news organizations are much more reliable, although you never really get the entire story. If one is to comment on current events, one has to take the risk of playing the occasional fool.
Andrew
good point. I've only known one man as well written as you sir. His name was alan jones....
Post a Comment
# posted by 
: 1:43 PM
: 1:43 PM
