XPost: alt.politics.equality, alt.government.employees, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: nospam@ix.netcom.com   
      
   What this whinebag of a story leaves out is that these people were double-   
   dipping military retirement paychecks with a federal job and later federal   
   retirement.   
      
   Affirmative action courtesy of the USAF and buddies in the federal   
   government.   
      
   WASHINGTON (AP) — Evelyn Seabrook was able to buy a home even though she   
   had only a high school diploma. Glenn Flood worked his way up the career   
   ladder to become a public affairs officer for former Defense Secretary   
   Donald Rumsfeld. And Calvin Stevens had a dual military and federal   
   service career that took him to high levels in both.   
      
   Now in their late 70s and early 80s, the three retirees are part of a   
   generation of Black Americans who used the military and federal civil   
   service to pursue the American dream. They acknowledge there were   
   challenges. But they believe they received more opportunities in the   
   military and as government employees than they would have in a private   
   sector where racial discrimination and patronage were common at the time   
   they were ready to enter the workforce.   
      
   “I am glad I chose to be in federal service," Seabrook said. "Even with   
   all the drawbacks, my personal life was enhanced by my federal job.”   
      
   Seabrook, Flood and Stevens have more than 120 years of combined military   
   and federal service. As leaders in various capacities in the National   
   Active and Retired Employees Association, they are plugged into the siege   
   federal employees are under during the opening weeks of President Donald   
   Trump's second term. It started with the elimination of programs promoting   
   diversity, equity and inclusion and has expanded to a culling of the   
   federal workforce under Elon Musk, a special adviser to the Republican   
   president. Musk also seeks to eliminate agencies as head of the Department   
   of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.   
      
   They say one thing being lost in the attacks on the federal workforce is   
   its important history as a stepping stone into the middle class for   
   minorities when paths were limited, in particular for Black Americans.   
      
   Speaking from their homes near Orlando, Florida, and in Decatur, Georgia,   
   and Palm Springs, California, the retirees said when they came into the   
   military and federal service decades ago, the push wasn’t about   
   diversifying the workforce. Rather, the opportunities were about ending   
   the discrimination that left qualified people of color on the outside of   
   many workplaces.   
      
   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/to-these-black-retirees-the-federal-   
   civil-service-now-under-attack-was-a-path-to-the-middle-class/ar-AA1zdk5r   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)