UM employee fired over Sept. 11 remarks

The Miami Herald ^ | November 16, 2001 | GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

[Clemenza]

This is the University of MIAMI in Coral Gables, Florida, about twenty minutes down the Palmetto Expressway (and a short drive down Miller Drive) from my house.

What is your beef with Luis? I hate to see two of my favorite fellow Freepers at each other's throats.

[Un-PC]

William Wallace,

The University of Miami is a small private university located in Coral Gables, Fla. It is not a state university. Better check your sources.

Go 'Canes

- Un-PC

[mommadooo3]

That guy is TRULY lucky to have lost ONLY a job with such a cold-blooded statement. And if he were to be sent packing, BACK to his homeland, he WOULD STILL be very lucky to be able to GO.

I laugh about those who scream 'discrimination' when they make idiotic remarks AGAINST this country, and then it comes back to bite them in the butt. Discrimination is about the LAMEST thing to be screaming. Luis....do you wear dark socks or white ones with a dark suit? Do you have chicken or steak for supper? Do you hang out with law-abiding, upright citizens or gang thugs? Do you teach your kids your native language, English, or both? I would say that for nearly all people, they discriminate.

And for a company to fire someone who made such a remark, they DO have that right to discriminate between an asset to the company or just an ass.

And if that cretin has the right to 'free speech'....then so does the company. They exercized THEIR right to free speech when they said AMF.

[Luis Gonzalez]

This may or may not mean anything to you, and tis is one of thoise issues where no one will admit to being wrong, but there is a war going on.

I know that it has become cliche tp say that, and most people sneer at the remark, but the US Armed Forces are dropping bombs on another country as a direct result of an act of war perpetrated by people living there that killed 5,000+ innocent civilians.

This is a two-front war, the initial attack came from within, the enemy is here. This hasn't happened to the US since the War Between the States (or the War of Northern Aggression according to some fine, upstanding Southern FReepers I know), and the rules are different.

That again, was not a cliche, but rather, simply reality once more.

I don't think that I am saying anything profound when I suggest that during times on war, when that war is being waged on your own turf, things change, they certainly did for me on 9/11/01.

To forgive is divine they say, but I'm just human, I am no longer tolerant, nor will I forgive.

If you support the enemy, or applaud their actions, then you are the enemy.

[hellinahandcart]

Oh, blow it out your nose. Being fired from one's job has always been a possible consequence of shooting off one's stupid mouth. When your expressed opinions cause you to be a disruption or a liability in the workplace, you're gone. Tough sh!t.

This guy is lying his head off, by the way. Initially the article says it was because of the "birthday" remark, but gee, he seems to have made a whole series of statements that offended his coworkers. He must know he doesn't have a leg to stand on, if his lawyer is now blaming "the Jews" for orchestrating his dismissal.

[mc5cents]

Ouch! UM. University of Miami. UM. University of Michigan. Close, but you lose the cigar Willie. It was about the former. Sorry.

[Luis Gonzalez]

My friend WW is quoting the wise FReeper Willie Green, from his post #22.

Follow the sequence of responses closely from that point.

[William Wallace]

The University of Miami is a small private university located in Coral Gables, Fla. It is not a state university. Better check your sources.

I think you should tell that to Willie. Take a number though -- there's a l-o-n-g line.

[Mercuria]

UM President Donna Shalala

AHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!! IT IS BACK FROM THE DEAD!!! IT STILL WALKS AMONG US!!!

**holding up a cross and flinging holy water** "The power of Christ compels you...the power of Christ compels you...!"

[Polybius]

Another example of political correctness run amuck. We're rapidly approaching a police state when citizens can be fired from their jobs for harboring anti-government sentiments

I would not call the vocal celebration of the violent deaths of 5,000 American civilians as harboring "anti-Government" sentiments.

If this man were an American citizen, his action would fall under the U.S. Constitution's definition of treason in "giving aid and comfort to the enemy".

Since he is not an American citizen, his actions qualify as those of an enemy alien.

I agree with you that firing is not a fitting punishment. He should be deported from the land of the citizens whose deaths he celebrates.

[William Wallace]

Incredibly, I found an article published today that was even dumber than what Willie said:

Why the War Party may fail by Patrick J. Buchanan

Here's a sample:

"Now comes the hard part. Bush must soon post the goals for phase two of the War on Terror, a decision that could split apart his unified country or shatter his war coalition. For America's foreign policy elites are not united on phase two. As in the great battle between FDR and the America First of 1940-41, they are already separating into a War Party and a Peace Party.

"The choice Bush must make: Does phase two mean an attack on Iraq and the destruction of Saddam Hussein? Or does phase two mean a diplomatic initiative to honor Bush's commitment to our Arab allies to midwife a Mideast peace and the birth of a new nation called Palestine?

Pat of course thinks we were wrong to fight the Nazis (and presumably their Japanese allies) notwithstanding Pearl Harbor. Naturally he thinks our next step in response to 9/11 should be to help establish yet another totalitarian state committed to the destruction of the U.S. and Israel. Which makes about as much sense as handing over the Hawaiian islands to Hirohito to thank them for their visit to Pearl Harbor.

That's one thing about Pat and the Brigadiers -- they're consistent!

[Mercuria]

``If the same thing had occurred with someone of a different background, it would have resulted in a different outcome,'' Rahat said Thursday outside his former job site on UM's Jackson Memorial Hospital campus. ``This was discrimination.''

Someone send Mr. Rahat this link:

A Zewdalem Kebede Reader: Ethiopian-American at SDSU Confronts Saudi Students

Mr. Kebede, a student at SDSU, got a sanction from the high mucky-mucks there simply for scolding some of his fellow students for chuckling over the events of September 11.

[xm177e2]

Private employers -- including Goodwill and UM -- have a right to fire employees if they don't like their political beliefs, said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, president of the Miami chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. They cannot fire employees based on race, religion, national origin, sex or sexual orientation.

I didn't realize that. It makes a lot of sense, though.

[Victoria Delsoul]

UM employee who was turning 22 that day was fired over Sept. 11 remarks, "Some birthday gift from Osama bin Laden!"

Sounds good to me.

In October, Michael Italie, a Socialist mayoral candidate in Miami, was fired from his minimum-wage job as a sewing machine worker at Goodwill Industries of South Florida.

Sounds even better! Hehehe.

[PoisedWoman]

Sayonara, RA(ha)T.

I"m surprised UM went this far. Good for them.

[JoeSchem]

If Mohammed had made an anti-government remark in his homeland, he'd have his neck sliced. It's interesting how Muslims always demand this esoteric interpretation of civil rights from a non-Muslim nation, while conveniently forgetting that Muslim nations don't have civil rights at all.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks for the information on University of Michigan, it is a fine school.

BTW, I have always wondered something, was it Brigadiers voting in error for Gore, or the other way around in Palm Beach County? Just trying to figure out who is dumber.

LOL!!!!!!!!! Your post 27 is so FACTUAL! Go Luis, go Hahahahahahahaha.

[William Wallace]

In October, Michael Italie, a Socialist mayoral candidate in Miami, was fired from his minimum-wage job as a sewing machine worker at Goodwill Industries of South Florida.

Go Mike go! ;-)

[Redbob]

"Rahat ... opined that the ``tragic events'' were predictable because U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan had created anti-American sentiment, and because the United States had previously provided arms and training to the terrorists."

Does nobody else find it ironic that Rahat got fired for saying the same things that Clinton got paid $100K for saying at Georgetown last week?

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hehehe.