Hogging the Left Lane
Welcome to the New Jersey Turnpike
Either Albert Einstein or Rita Mae Brown once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Obviously, neither person drove on the New Jersey Turnpike (NJT). On the NJT, Insanity is thinking you will finally get in front of all the trucks. Insanity is also hoping the slowest driver EVER … will not be hogging the left lane.
The left lane on any road is reserved for passing other cars and/or emergency vehicles, like when emergency vehicles, lights flashing, come down the road, the cars on both sides must pull over to clear the path. Or when cars must stop at an intersection to allow an ambulance or fire truck quick-and-easy passage through an intersection, the drivers aren’t supposed to rush in front of the emergency vehicle to beat the light. Rules were meant to be followed. Rules were great because they applied to EVERYBODY … equally.
But these days, people act mostly on feelings, which are their only concern, with no thought about their actions on others. People don’t worry about repercussions of their self-importance. They’re like Daffy Duck dismissing the ramifications of his sudden wealth, “Consequences, shmonsequences, as long as I’m rich.” In the left lane, the hogger is a self-appointed teacher; his way is the only way. Hoggers block people from passing around them; they cut off truckers, before slowing down in front of them; they tie up traffic because they feel they must teach others a lesson. Hoggers feel they know all. They feel they’re the decisive morality.
Daffy Duck getting his comeuppance in Ali Baba Bunny
US government agencies, like the Department of Defense (DOD), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and also the aviation industry itself now deal in feelings. They bought heavily into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) because management feels DEI’s fair. Fair? Fairness is subjective. Hiring in the aviation industry (or any industry) should be blind … like Justice. What, then, is DEI about? Well, let’s say FAA management feels a woman should be the first choice for a job, even for a position said woman doesn’t have the skills or experience to qualify for. They feel a woman of any race should never have to compete for a job against a white man. That’s called Equity, gender before experience.
What’s Diversity and Inclusivity about? DEI policies dictate that those who feel they identify as the opposite gender should come first; that a ‘trans’ person’s feelings should take priority over everyone else’s experience and skill. Is this dangerous? Look at DEI in Women’s Sports, where qualified women (QW) who’ve trained all their lives must surrender their hard work and earned rewards, like endorsements, scholarships, being a role model for girls, and coaching positions, to … white men (?!) … who pretend to be girls. Adding insult to injury, these perverted pretend girls intrude on the QW’s privacy, demanding to undress with the QW in the women’s locker room, robbing the QW of their modesty.
Riley Gaines losing First Place
A pretend girl is a ‘woman-impersonating-male-pervert’ (WIMP); they’ve forced QW to take second place … wait for it … to white men. The truth is DEI policies are now discriminating against women – qualified women. These qualified women are being ordered … by political, educational, and business managers … to shut up and take it. Women are being denied opportunities to advance. And the bureaucrats forcing the qualified women to submit are the same DEI-loving political, educational, and business managers, who are now supporting white men to deny qualified women their hard-earned opportunities. DEI policies that supposedly help women in reality crush women.
The Hypocrisy is incredible.
But wait … there’s more. Qualified women, who participate in Rugby, Volleyball, or Mixed Martial Arts events, are now forced to compete against these WIMPs who physically outperform them. The real women are now receiving injuries, such as concussions and cracked skulls in these sporting events. It's bad enough these WIMPs are stealing opportunities from real female athletes, but now the WIMPs are being encouraged to injure the real female athletes … kind of like what happens in women assault cases, where criminal WIMPs beat up on women. How is allowing a man to crack a woman’s skull or giving her a concussion in an unfair competition considered sport? Do the bureaucrats who approve these competitions enjoy watching women getting beat up, put in the hospital? Why are WIMP’s feelings more important than a woman’s safety or her right to hard earned opportunities?
Take it one step further, what happens in five to ten years when these WIMPs are looking for employment? When common sense returns, who would hire a WIMP who couldn’t compete in his own lane, who chose to steal prospects from those qualified? When the charade is over, who would marry a WIMP? What future do these selfish WIMPs have once the false praise has stopped?
To summarize: Women are being physically assaulted and hospitalized with impunity. Those qualified women who worked hard for their chance at opportunities have been shut down, shut up and shut out. DEI contradicted itself and proved it cared nothing for women. It’s a good bet DEI probably cared nothing for racial equality either. And the FAA, government, aviation educational institutions, and now the aviation industry bought into DEI, hook, line and sinker. They did this because of people’s feelings.
That’s the illusion of entitling policies, like DEI. Take from those who have earned by making victims of those who haven’t earned … or refuse to earn. This is what government agencies and businesses are doing by adopting DEI; they punish the self-motivated and raise the entitled. Hire pilots, not by their flying skills, but for their race; employ aircraft technicians, not for their troubleshooting abilities, but for their gender; sign up air traffic controllers, not for their knowledge, but for their gender identification.
But by employing DEI policies, will the FAA catch each aviation safety inspector (ASI) up on almost four years of suspended on-site surveillance. Will DEI clear the backlogs of missed enroute inspections? How will DEI re-engage ASIs to conduct proper safety inspections? How will the FAA hire enough new ASIs, with the critical experience – not green students fresh from an aviation school, as has been the case – but true aviation professionals with years and decades of experience, who can fill the enormous safety vacuum left by FAA inspectors forced out from the CØVID mandates? Are DEI policies the FAA’s ‘great fix’?
Some DOD people – with common sense – finally caught on to the wasteful DEI policies; the pro-DEI rhetoric of government bureaucrats and acting bureaucrats in different agencies is finally being ignored, hopefully not too late. The US Congress addressed the DEI problem in the DOD budget. Congress began unraveling radical DEI policies and the subsequent destructive effects of Environmental, Social and Governance – ESG – frameworks. Faced with the low recruitment numbers of talented individuals and our country’s safety, the nation couldn’t rely on military leadership to step up and rescind the DEI policies. It was an example of how DEI-minded leaders couldn’t act against the mindset, defend against the facts of DEI divisiveness, even while it was destroying the institutions they controlled. These so-called ‘leaders’ were finally pushed out of the left lane.
Two months ago, I was flying on a major airline from a midwestern airport on a narrowbody airliner, circa the 1960s. No names, but it was a major airline that embraces DEI. After passengers boarded and doors were locked, it took two aircraft technicians one hour and forty minutes to service hydraulics. It didn’t matter what nationality or gender the technicians were, but they spent 100 minutes doing a simple hydraulic service that normally – from my experience as a mechanic – takes fifteen to twenty minutes to accomplish.
Some may say, “So what? They were trying to get it right.” But the question is: if the two technicians, whether contract or airline employed, took over 100 minutes to do a simple hydraulic servicing, what other safety items did they not show competence because of their inexperience? Whether the two technicians were airline employed or contract maintenance, how many other airlines’ aircraft did they make unsafe? These two technicians lacked competence at a line maintenance job … which is in direct violation of Title 14 of the code of federal regulations (CFR) Part §121.375, “… each person (including inspection personnel) who determines the adequacy of work done is fully informed about procedures and techniques and new equipment in use and is competent to perform his duties.” Next time, I’ll just drive.
Title 14 CFR Part §121.375 is a real regulation; it’s enforceable. This breakdown of a fundamental maintenance skill is an example of why DEI policies won’t work in aviation. DEI is a wolf in sheep’s clothing; a Trojan Horse; a divisive wedge. DEI is like a vaccine long proven ineffective – dangerous – but still touted by those with a stake in its success, in this case: DEI’s deception. Working in aviation must never depend on what race or gender one is. Working in aviation depends strictly on experience and knowledge. The FAA and the airlines pushing a non-Fact agenda based on feelings? It’s hogging the left lane all over again.
“Calm your anger and forget your rage: Do not fret, it only leads to harm.” Psalms 37: 8