If there was ever a close-up, in-person example of the impact of a bad idea, it is the District of Columbia’s embrace of former President Joe Biden’s DEI lunacy five years ago.
The District’s sane leaders could have written off Joe as a doddering dolt or even put him in a straitjacket — but no, they let him romp and rampage in a classic case of demented rage as he crusaded to destroy the Republic.
So for them, this past Jan. 19, they were “just following orders” when one of America’s most witless and unnecessary environmental disasters wracked our nation’s capital.
What caused it?
Evidence gathered since has revealed the culprit: our old friend, DEI — that’s right, Joe’s time bomb called “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”
Of course, had the disaster been Donald J. Trump’s fault, you would have been reading about it in the Washington Post and the New York Times ever since. All the major networks would be overflowing (to use an unlovely metaphor) their newscasts, humor shows, weather reports, and sports reporting with it.
But it wasn’t Trump’s fault. It happened in Washington, D.C., which votes 90% Democrat, so now millions of people in Maryland, Virginia, the District, and everywhere downriver to the Chesapeake Bay have to live with it.
An Honest Reporter
Does Her Homework
After the disaster, Kelly Sadler of the Washington Times did the digging that the MSM’s usual suspects tried to bury. After a month of painstaking research, she broke the story.
“The District of Columbia hired David Gadis as CEO and general manager of DC Water in 2018 after he lied to Flint, Mich., residents that their water was safe to drink, even though it was contaminated with lead.
“Why? Diversity.
“Mr. Gadis was the first black leader of a major utility in Indianapolis. After taking the helm at DC Water, Mr. Gadis prioritized ‘equity’ for its customers, employees, small-business partners, and the broader community, CIO Views reported in 2022, naming Mr. Gadis one of the ten most influential black corporate leaders of the year.
“One of his first moves as CEO was to fire white male executives at the utility and hire less-experienced people of color. He oversaw a $520 million budget in diversity, equity, and inclusion projects.
“Mr. Gadis said that when he joined DC Water, ‘this was an organization that looked very similar to our industry. It was predominantly, you know, white male at the top, but this was a utility that’s, you know, more than 70% people of color work at this utility.’
“He added: ‘But the people at the top, the executives, the chiefs in that C suite, they should look like the employees that they serve and that they work with, and the same thing with the community. And so my executive team, you know, looks exactly like the community.’
“Now, he is overseeing the largest wastewater spill in American history. At least 240 million gallons of raw sewage have flowed into the Potomac River. Residents in nearby Fairfax County, Va., have been asked to ration toilet flushes and toilet paper while Mr. Gadis oversees emergency repairs to the sewer line.
“DC Water focused more on DEI and environmental justice than on oversight, repair work, and maintenance of the sewer lines. Dozens of DEI programs were created, with multiple officials and offices overseeing initiatives such as ‘unconscious bias.’ Under Mr. Gadis’ leadership, the utility focused on supplier diversity, inclusion councils, training, outreach, compliance goals, and internal equity practices.”
President Trump Comes
To The Rescue — By Request
Democrats quickly realized that they couldn’t escape blame for the disaster. It took a month for them to come clean, but on the day Sadler’s exposé appeared in the Washington Times, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser asked President Trump for help.
The lefties at Politico had no choice but to report it:
“Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday [Feb. 18] accepted President Donald Trump’s offer to help fix the massive sewage spill outside the city, making an unusual request for Trump to declare the area a disaster and pay for repairs.
“Bowser’s request came days after Trump tried to blame the spill on her and other Democrats and said that if they want federal help ‘they have to call me and ask, politely.’
“Bowser signed her letter ‘Respectfully’ in asking for the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] to offset all ‘costs incurred’ by the city and regional sewer authorities following the Jan. 19 collapse of a sewer line in Montgomery County, Md. FEMA usually pays 75% of disaster repairs unless damage is extreme.
“Bowser told reporters Thursday [Feb. 19] that she made the request now because Trump expressed interest in helping and to minimize costs to D.C. residents. In addition to seeking assistance, the three-term mayor — who is not seeking reelection — declared a local public emergency and asked the federal government to support several other water quality and flood protection projects in the city.
“ ‘I have had outreach from the president’s team,’ Bowser said during a press conference. ‘That would indicate to me that they’re supportive of the request.’
“No president has approved a disaster declaration for a sewage spill, according to an analysis by Politico’s E&E News of FEMA records dating to 1953.”
Like The Chesapeake Bay,
We’re Stuck With It
From Notre Dame to the USCCB, from the U.S. armed forces to employers throughout America, the damage of DEI goes on.
Can it be reversed?
No more than D.C. can put the sewage back in the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Southwest Washington, D.C., which treats roughly 300 million gallons of sewage daily from the District, Maryland, and Virginia, we are told.
What can Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees do to reverse the damage of DEI? When President Biden demanded that all federal government grantees adopt the policy or risk losing their taxpayer funding, the board quickly adopted DEI.
DEI appointees appeared all over the campus, and hiring and promotions were based on an equal balance of racial minority status and adherence to the university’s “Catholic mission,” whatever that is: consider that Notre Dame’s trustees disavowed their adherence to Catholic magisterial teaching, but not the university’s Catholic “identity,” in 1967.
And a host of other Catholic institutions joined them.
And what about the millions of hires after 2021 far beyond universities? Clearly, race was a factor, and when it came to the racial majority, a profoundly negative one.
How do those businesses and other institutions now undo the damage they wrought by favoring race over merit, performance, and qualifications?
Sure, many of them, like Notre Dame, have changed the name of their DEI programs while leaving the racist standards in place.
And why not?
Consider our beloved American Church:
Last September, in defiance of President Trump’s recision of Biden’s DEI executive orders, Bishop Roy E. Campbell spoke for the USCCB when he declared on its website that “DEI Means GOD.”
And sure enough, that same month, the bishops announced that their Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism has been made a permanent USCCB body.
Dr. Thomas Sowell, a black man who grew up in poverty, worked hard, went to Harvard, and came out of the University of Chicago (including classes with Milton Friedman) a Marxist, quickly wised up when he went to work for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The minimum wage punished blacks, he discovered some 75 years ago.
And ever since, he has opposed programs that perpetuate racism by pretending to eradicate it.
“The best way to end racism,” he once said, “is to stop being racist.”
“When will they ever learn,” sang Peter, Paul, and Mary 60 years ago.
When will they ever learn?
