On-Job-Training

Let us say you are a hospital administrator. Yours is a large hospital that leads the nation in complex, leading-edge surgery. You need a senior surgeon for the staff, a chief of surgery to guide and shape the advances in the technology. What do the job requirements look like?

Ahhh, here's the recommendation to the board. We need a woman. The staff is unbalanced with regard to gender. This candidate is a woman. Not a very attractive woman, I'll admit, but a woman nevertheless. There are some orientation questions, but they don't need to concern us. She might even give us double-credit, diversity-wise.

She is very knowledgeable about surgery. She actually taught anatomy in one of our leading colleges. She has taught many surgeons. She can be the chief cutter in our surgery department. She certainly knows where the body parts are.

Well, this could be problem here. She has never actually held a scalpel or made a real incision. She lectures brilliantly on it and can explain precisely what went on in the the surgeries we have previously performed here, but she has never really put her hands on a living human organ. She has no surgical experience at all. Never worked in an operating room.

Should that be a problem?

Meet Elena Kagan, the potential Supreme Court Justice who has never worn a judicial robe, sat a judge's bench, or lifted a gavel.

Now, take a look at this bit of background:

No Military Recruiters on Harvard's Campus

Yes, that Elena Kagan. She wouldn't let military recruiters come on the campus of her university. The supposed "best and brightest" young leaders of the nation could not be exposed to the opportunity to possibly consider contributing to the defense of their country.

I've mentioned previously here that I am well aware that gays serve in our military. I served with several that I know are gay and I'm certain with some that I was unaware. I don't have a problem with that.

I know that American society is increasingly accepting of gays in all professions and I also know that the military is not necessarily a demographic slice that leads in that acceptance. There can be problems with leadership positions and it is a fact of life that all military personnel must advance into such positions to succeed.

My problem is that Ms Kagan doesn't seem confident enough in the brilliance of her students at Harvard to let them make their own choices. My problem is the discrimination against military recruiters abiding by the rules they are given while the political figures that established those rules are welcomed on her campus.

I'm concerned that in a world filled with deadly threats to our nation and dependent upon a strong military we are seeking to place an individual in a critical position who is both lacking in experience in that occupation and demonstrably opposed to supporting our military.

Kagan is a bad choice, but we've come to expect bad choices from this administration.