Crowley Star (Crowley, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 15, 2014 Page: 4 of 12
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Page 4 ★ Crowley Star ★ Thursday May 15, 2014
www.crowleystar.net
BREAD FOR THE JOURNEY
FORUM
The quest to "Be Like”
Labor policy would deem NBA racist
Pastor Justin
Bridges
Heritage of
Faith Christian
Center
As a child I would constantly emulate my heroes,
whether it was a professional athlete, Superman sav-
ing the day, or the great Jedi Luke Skywalker. I would
rehearse, role play and act out great
victories. I would hit the grand slam in
the bottom of the ninth to win the game
or I would make the 3-pointer at the
buzzer.
Whatever the scenario, I would al-
ways try to “be like” someone who was
great. You see, we all want to be the
hero. We all want to make a mark on
someone’s life.
Thirty-two years have passed and I
am still on a quest to be like someone
great. I no longer have costumes or my
Nerf basketball rim on the back of my
door, but I still have the desire to make
a mark on the world.
You and I are called to make a mark
on our world! We are called to make a lasting impact in
our families, in our workplace, in our school and in our
communities. We are called to make a difference.
According to Matthew 5, “We are the salt of the earth
and we are the light of the world,” which means that we
have something in us that has the power to affect, alter, or
change something.
We are called Christians. This is not to be a label we
wear, but a person we emulate. As a Christian we are to
be like Christ. The world, whether it realizes it or not, is
looking for and needing a Christ. People need someone
to reach down and pick them up just like Christ reached
down and picked us up. We are to walk in love like Christ
walked in love...we are to be like Christ.
Philippians 2:5-7 says, “Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form
of a servant.”
As a pastor, I want to encourage all of us to be like
Christ this month. Let’s all make a decision to be a ser-
vant. Let’s serve our families. Let’s serve the people in our
lives, our church and our community! I believe if we chose
to be like Christ, we will make a mark that will forever
change our world and generations to come.
Justin Bridges is the senior pastor at Heritage of Faith
Christian Center 10350 Old Cleburne Crowley Junction.
10PEN1H&tv* FLOOD5KISI
CrowleykStar
Volume 28, Number 51
12 Pages in 1 Section
(ISSN-1092-4965)
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Racism in the NBA
has been all the talk show
rage over the past week, as
people double down on their
declarations of Los Angeles
Clippers owner Donald Ster-
ling’s despicable, private and
illegally recorded rants.
However, did you know
that the National Basketball
Association’s entire player
hiring practice is racist
based upon the newest
legal theory on the subject
espoused by U.S. Labor Sec-
retary Thomas Perez.
Perez believes that intent
does not matter in deter-
mining if a hiring practice
is racist, only the outcomes.
So, if a company has an open
hiring process, and ends
up hiring 80 percent Asian
Americans, 4 percent African
Americans and 8 percent
Hispanics and 8 percent
whites, that business could
be deemed to have engaged
in racist behavior in hir-
ing due to its proportional
over representation of Asian
American workers.
The reason? The Labor
Department, and in fact
the entirety of the Obama
Administration is operating
Rick
Manning
Americans
FOR LIMITED
GOVERNMENT
under
a legal
theory
that holds
if a com-
pany’s
hiring
procedure
doesn’t
reflect the
demo-
graphics
of their
physical
locale,
then
the outcome of their hir-
ing process should be
treated exactly the same as
if the company deliberately
excluded minorities from
employment.
This legal theory has
already been applied against
employers by the Labor
Department, and the Equal
Employment Opportu-
nity Commission has used
it as the basis for declar-
ing employment questions
about an applicant’s arrest
record to be racist, due to the
disproportionate numbers of
African Americans who get
screened out by the question.
Using the same screening
mechanism, the players in the
National Basketball Associa-
tion should reflect the demo-
graphics of America. Accord-
ing to the U.S. Census Bureau,
this would mean that 63
percent of NBA players would
be white, 17 percent would be
Hispanic, 13 percent would
be black, 5 percent Asian, 1
percent American Indian or
Alaska Native and about .2
percent Hawaiian islander or
other Pacific Islander.
No one, not even racial
diversity radical Perez, is ad-
vocating that the NBA or any
professional sports league
reflect the demographic di-
versity of the nation. Instead
we want our entertainers to
be on stage based upon their
skill without regard to the
color of their skin.
If this point is so obvious
for our entertainers, then
why should it be so hard for
Perez to understand when it
comes to the workplace?
Clearly if there are dis-
criminatory practices that
deny people of equal ability
and qualifications, employ-
ment opportunities based
upon race, the Labor Depart-
ment should step in. But
this concept that the racial
make-up of a workforce is
the basis for fining employ-
ers, even when there is not
even a smidgeon of evi-
dence that the organization
engaged in discriminatory
practices is absurd.
Yet, that is the driving
philosophy behind the cur-
rent Labor Department’s
enforcement of federal laws
against employment dis-
crimination.
When it comes down
to sober evaluation, Perez’
outcome based anti-dis-
crimination legal theory has
a disparate impact against
having a rational labor policy.
All employers should be able
to make the exact kind of
personnel decisions that have
been made in the NBA, where
the personnel decisions are
made based upon the skill of
the players and not whether
their skin tones match up with
the demographics of their sur-
rounding community.
Rick Manning is the vice
president of public policy
and communications for
Americans for Limited Gov-
ernment.
COMMENTARY
American Independence, paying the price
The dream of the average
American is independence.
Under this umbrella
known as the American
dream is the pursuitof own-
ing a home, a car, a stable
paying job and the ability to
provide for our food, cloth-
ing and enough cash to care
for our family. Americans
work one or two jobs forty
to sixty hours a week to keep
this umbrella over our heads.
Independence is never
easy or cheap. Most Ameri-
cans pay 20-30 years to own
a house. A lot of Americans
never own one. Young adults
are graduating from college
owing $28,000 to over a
$100,000 before they even
begin their first real job
(source: American Student
Assistance.org). Americans
with medical insurance often
end up tens of thousands of
dollars in debt due to being
responsible for 2opercent of
their medical bills. Nearly 1.7
million people filed bankrupt-
cy due to medical bills in 2012
and 56 million more Ameri-
cans struggled with medical
bills (source:cnbc.com report
from NerdWallet).
Too many Americans have
worked for corporations for
ten to twenty years to learn
their employer is moving to
Honduras, Mexico or simply
closing to reorganize and re-
open in another state (source:
Manufacturing.net, 600
Kentucky workers lose jobs
as Jamestown plant closes to
move to Honduras) Tradi-
tionally, Americans have
dreamed of plugging into
an employer or career and
working thirty years. The
hope is to progress, grow
and be rewarded throughout
the career. When retirement
age comes then we hope to
pay ourselves to do whatever
we want to do which could
include golfing, fishing, trav-
eling or walking the beach.
Our forefathers came
here seeking independence
from British rule. They
wanted to enjoy religious
Glenn
Mollette
American
Columnist
freedom,
own some
land and
have the
freedom
to carve
out a
living for
them-
selves
and their
fami-
lies. The
pursuit
of their
dreams was tough and many
died.
Their sacrifices paved the
way for survivors and others
who would follow. They and
every generation that followed
handed to us the America
we enjoy. It is humbling to
walk the national cemetery
in Arlington knowing that so
many died for what we have
today. Whether standing at
the tomb of the Unknown
Soldier or at a friend's grave
in Kentucky, who died in
Vietnam, I am starkly re-
minded that a huge price of
sacrifice has been paid for all
of us in America.
My mother and father
worked hard for forty years.
I benefited from their labor.
Numerous schoolteachers
invested in me for years
without a lot of pay. The
spectrumof debt we all owe
is wide. From the Wright
Brothers, Henry Ford,
Thomas Edison, Jonas Salk,
Martin Luther King, Steve
Gates and millions of others
our lives are enriched be-
cause so many have worked
hard and sacrificed much.
Americans have enjoyed
the freedom to dream, pursue,
fail and try again. All the while
everything we are doing today
has been made possible or
a little easier because of the
price paid by so many others
who have given so much.
Glenn Mollette is an
American columnist and au-
thor. Contact him at GMol-
lette@aol.com.
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Shillam, Kyp. Crowley Star (Crowley, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 15, 2014, newspaper, May 15, 2014; Burleson, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth809233/m1/4/?rotate=270: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Burleson Public Library.