Bravery Comes In All Colors

by digby

Joan Walsh deserves a round of applause for her appearance on Tweety this afternoon. Both Matthews and Buchanan were having a conniption fit about the fact than an white firefighter was allegedly discriminated against. (Affirmative action, blah,blah,blah.) Walsh was very even handed and ably made many good points during the argument, admitting that this particular case was a tough balancing act, and trying to keep these two meatheads on track. But she finally got fed up when Chris let fly with this simple minded nonsense:

Matthews: Frank Ricci’s Italian, the other complainant in this case is Hispanic. I don’t think it’s all about the Irish, but I do think the Irish have a proud tradition of firefighting and damn it Joan, the guys that got killed on 9/11, a lot of them were Irish and they chose to be firefighters, because it’s a family tradition going back to the 19th century…

Joan Walsh: Don’t race bait me, Chris. There are firefighters in my family. God bless them …

Matthews: Then why are accusing them of bigotry?

Joan Walsh: because the fact of the matter is that they have protected those jobs for their brothers, for their sons and they’re public sector jobs. This isn’t the family business, Chris. Bravery comes in all colors.

Damn straight. And by the way, the reason the Irish dominated the firehouses from the 19th century on was straight up political patronage. Those days have been over for a long time. The “family” business of the public sector has to be open to everyone this century.

I don’t see why it’s ok to dismiss all complaints about discrimination as special interest whining except when it’s coming from conservative white males. Aren’t they a minority now? Why shouldn’t they be dismissed as a just another special interest as all these people dismiss the half of the population that’s female? Or the large number of Hispanics and blacks of both sexes? If they want to play this game they should at least be forced to play by their own rules.

Go Joan.