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-- Jeff Caynon, president of HPFFA has concerns about her "pattern of erratic behavior."

Houston City Council Woman Jolanda Jones
has been holding people's feet to the fire over
incidents of sexism and racism inside HFD

Some history re Council Woman Jolanda Jones [Davey D's Hip Hop Corner: Hip Hop and Politics] - Aug 2009 -

[Excerpt] Houston TX) we have a problem. Sadly its the age old problem of racism and sexism which was supposed to be disappearing in this new Era of Obama within a city that is now the third largest in the country. For those who haven’t been following the drama, what’s been going on is an ugly series of racial incidents including 2 or 3 noose hanging incidents, racial epithets being spewed over the departments tactical radio system and disturbing remarks targeting two women sprawled on the walls of Houston’s fire station #54.

At the center of the most recent controversy are two women Paula Keyes and Jane Draycott who reported that for months they’ve had to endure a series of incidents including the recent defacing of a picture of Draycott’s daughter who was killed in a car accident. Someone wrote ‘dead’ across the photo while referring to her as a ‘nigger lover’ and a writing the words ‘die’ on her picture. Here’s a link to a local news report on this incident.

[snip]

The other incident involves a white HFD captain named Keith Smith who was discovered to have a noose hanging in his locker earlier this year. Smith was reprimanded by the Chief for the incident while the City Council coughed up a bunch of money-60 thousand dollars for sensitivity training. Smith a 28 year veteran who has held the rank of captain for 15 years recently issued a public apology where explained that he kept the noose as some sort of memento for his training days. He said he had no idea the noose meant something racial.

One has to wonder what sort of training Smith had received. Maybe things were more racial charged 28-30 years ago. I find it hard to believe that Smith was that oblivious when you consider the national brouhaha that occurred because of the noose hanging incidents in Jena, La (Jena 6) which is about 6 hours away from Houston. Was Smith not following the news when all this went down back in Fall of 2007?

What’s even crazier is that Rev D.Z. Cofield vice president of the Houston NAACP defended Smith saying he was unfairly being put on blast and they recommended that the letter of reprimand be removed from the captain’s record.

[snip]

"Since our interview a group of women firefighters have met with Houston Mayor Bill White to say that they are proud of of the fire department and that although there are some problems things aren’t all that bad."[End Excerpt]

OBAMA:

"I don’t know – not having been there and not seeing all the facts – what role race played in that, but I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two that he Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home," Obama said in response to a question from the Chicago Sun-Times's Lynn Sweet.

Gates, Obama allowed, "is a friend, so I may be a little biased here. I don't know all the facts."

However Gates, he continued, "jimmied his way to get into [his own] house."

"There was a report called in to the police station that there might be a burglary taking place – so far so good," Obama said, reflecting that he'd hope the police were called if he were seen breaking into his own house, then pausing.

"I guess this is my house now," he remarked of the White House. "Here I’d get shot."

Undergirding the long digression, though, was Obama's place as a new symbol of racial reconciliation, and his long past in the trenches of the politics of race and discrimination in the Illinois State Senate.

"Separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-American and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately," the president said, eagerly engaging the issue of racial profiling, a concern earlier in his career that has seen little White House attention to date......Politico -- July 2009

'You guys don't work. You come here and just sit around and sit down on your recliners and watch TV,'",

That ain't workin' that's the way you do it,
Money for nothin' and your chicks for free

Hey Jolanda. Don't get riled up but...

A Noose once bit my sister.

Uh .. wait .... that was a Moose. Never mind Jolanda.

'series' This whole Noose Thing is idiotic.
In all of America's history, more WHITES have been lynched than Blacks. From 'witches' in New England to Cattle Rustlers in the Old West.

Not to mention that HANGING - with a NOOSE - was still the preferred method of carrying out the Death Penalty in many states until fairly recently (1950's). Like those two homos who Murdered the Clutter family, In Cold Blood, in Kansas (1957?).

“The councilmember’s office confirms she was at the station Friday on a scavenger hunt with staff members”

A Scavenger Hunt during business hours???

Someone with a sane voice & logic has to intervene here & set the hooks into the councilWOMAN who took it upon herself to do a surprise visit to a fire station & start yapping. If she knows how to cook anything at all, she should be ashamed of herself. Maybe she only knows how to make reservations.

According to the article, this station has a staff level of 50 men. They most likely work 48 on & 48 off. Some places in the country work 72 on & 72 off.

What right does she have to snark off about how many ovens & how many refrrigerators that station has? I will bet a nice pork roast & beans with molasses & onions & hot garlic bread that there were experts who set up these parameters. How many refrigerators does the local school cafeteria have? How many ovens? The schools only feed kids SOME of their meals & only 5 days a week. How about the local Mission that feeds the homeless? Let her go there & see if they might need some help!!!

During the past 2 years, I have been put into a position of cooking for many people, a bit by default. I belong to a horse riding club that puts on at least one event a month. Anywhere from 25 riders to 60 riders might show up. Then there are volunteers who do timing, rider counts, sign ups, etc, & non-riding spouses who come along & help park rigs or help their other half & eat with us. There is even a local vendor who makes lots of horse tack & blankets, etc, who comes & we feed him, too. We serve everybody who shows up- even spectators. I rarely know very much in advance what the ‘food count’ MIGHT be.

To keep the cost of the rides down, we have developed a ‘Pot Luck’ method of feeding everyonewhen the awards are being handed out. The ride manager provides bottled water & the ‘Main Dish’.

I am single & I have NEVER been trained as a cook. I am actually a life-long bookkeeper. However, I live within ( 1/2 miles straight) 5 miles by road from the main location of base camp & the private residence there. His house has a simple stove with oven & 4 burners. Same as my house. His house has a refrigerator/freezer PLUS the extra one we found & bought for the garage for storing food for these events. I have 2 old refrigerators in my garage that I can put large bowls of food into prepared in advance, such as Jello salads.

I have purchased the following in those 2 years:::
Slow Cookers—5 qrt-6 qrt-— 7 qrt—another 7 qrt-— & a 15 qrt cooker.
I have also purchased 4 roasting pans & 12 cookie sheets and countless storage containers for prep & take home left overs. There is adequate power in his garage, where we set up tables to eat & serve food, cafeteria style. I do a fair amount of prep & pre-cooking at my own home & take hot food to the ride site. That sometimes can be a real challenge. Especially with 3 dogs in the vehicle with me.

We have prepared whole turkeys—mashed potatoes—gravy—dressing—hams—100 chicken thighs/28 wings & drumsticks—chili by the gallon—spaghetti—180 baked potatoes—trays of garlic bread & rolls—Root Beer floats with ice cream, huge bowls of salad-— huge bowls of Jello w/ fruit—& vegetarian soup or chili for those needs. etc. I get first dibs on turkey carcasses for soup with vegetables & barley.

The riders bring food for the pot luck part & that food has to be properly stored for 5-7 hours, which often makes FULL use of the refrigerator in the his garage. Brownies—cakes—cookies—pies—pasta salads-rice salads-cole slaw-—salsa—guacamoled—crackers—you name it, it has come to our events. We put bottled water in tubs with ice. We have become noted for our food & for not running out of it.

I think the highest total of people I have fed-—for ONLY ONE MEAL is about 80. I could not do this without the riders bringing prepared food—much of which does NOT need refrigeration.

50 men—eating a high number of calories per day, eating 3 meals a day & snacks would require more than a couple of ovens & a couple of refrigerators. They are on duty for a number of straight hours & must be prepared to leave in a hurry & enter into dangerous, calorie consuming situations. They do not eat like wimps. THEY EAT!!!!! THEY DESERVE TO!!!

Making the comment that all they do is sit around is equally disturbing. Any person who has managed to be a part of City government should have a better handle on the duties of a Fire Fighter or EMT.

I sincerely suggest she watch some old re-runs of “EMERGEMCY” which usually doesn’t show more than 8 staff members at any one time.

Anyone want to take the challenge & get the pork roast/beans/garlic bread dinner?

What a mess!