It Comes From The Top

As many of you have seen, there are far too many people within the Salisbury Fire Department, (and others) who have obviously shown their true colors when it comes to racism.

I allowed anonymous comments, (as much as I truly didn't want to) because I wanted this community to clearly see, (without recourse) just how bad things are around Salisbury.

That being said, allow me to tell you a brief story about the process in which I personally took years ago and why I have titles this Post, "It Comes From The Top."

Years ago when my Wife was working for the Salisbury Zoo, far too many animals were dying at an extremely rapid rate. Some was because of poor care and some died because of extremely poor management decisions. I'll not bore you again with the details about that situation but I will tell you that as my Wife tried to get this information up the ladder all the way to the Mayor's Office, it fell upon deaf ears.

I took it upon myself to make an appointment with the Mayor with all the documents and information necessary to make an unbelievable case against what was actually going on at the Zoo.

I met with Barrie Tilghman and John Pick and clearly convinced them that this was a very serious problem. I also expressed some of the other issues my Wife was experiencing and some of the things upper management at the Zoo had been doing to her. I then stated to the Mayor, "You can't fix something you're not aware of." I expressed how I thought this "Chain of Command System" sucked, as you could NOT get ANY information to the Mayor! The system only allowed employees to go to their immediate supervisor, then perhaps to his Boss. To get to the next level you have to file a grievance and it would still fall way short of getting all the way to the Mayor, EVER!

The Mayor responded with, I am a woman working in a man's world, I completely understand what your Wife is going through. She then expressed how her Husband almost got into a fight at one of the Council Meetings because of some very harsh things people has said about her, so she also understood that part as well. I then stated, IF you don't do anything about this, we would sue the City.

The long and short of it is, the Mayor refused to respond once she found out how serious and real the problem was. Rather than doing something about it, they went into damage control mode and ultimately fired my Wife because she couldn't perform her duties 100% with an injured back.

For those of you who were not around a year or two ago when this whole story was still fresh, my Wife was making all of the diets for the animals and Zookeepers so they could clean exhibits and she was also doing much of the catch up work on reports the Zoo was YEARS behind in. Also note, it would take years to catch up on that information, even at the rate she was concentrating on it with. Also note, the AZA wrote them up in a BIG way for the extremely poor record keeping and demanded the Zoo change this or the AZA would drop them.

I mention that because there certainly was room within the Zoo Staff to keep her on board and do some wonderful work. However, the Mayor would NOT recognize her dedication and actually used the information I shared against us.

OK, all that being said, do ANY of you actually believe there's NOT a racial problem within SOME people at the Salisbury Fire Department? Would you agree that after all that has been said about this issue that it would be really cool if the Mayor, Chief See, Deputy Chief Gordy stepped up to the plate and said, you know what, there is a problem here and we need to do a better job resolving it and boost morale?

Instead, they send their pawns here and go on the attack to attempt to take credibility away from the main issue. I personally think the Citizens should demand better for their Employees and their future.

I'd like to add, what does it say to those people who work hard for the City and actually go back to school to better themselves in the hopes of being promoted. The idea of doing so is to better their lives and enjoy better financial gains from such hard work. That is not the case for Lorenzo Cropper and Larry Dodd. Instead, this Administration says, IF you're NOT one of the Good Old Boys, if you're NOT a yes man, you're going nowhere with us.

I can assure you Ladies & Gentlemen, these people are so darned afraid that a Black Man and another much better educated White Man would make them look stupid and they're in fear for their own future.

Then I'd add, Lorenzo has been in the Department for 13 years now. He's on the fence, wouldn't you agree? If YOU were on the job that many years, would YOU rock the boat at this point? Sadly, Lorenzo will NOT be promoted under this administration no matter how hard he works. He'll always just be one of the guys, like it or not. This is why I have brought this to every one's attention. It's not right. It's not fair and we shouldn't be stepping back 100 years under this administration, we should be moving forward.

We have experienced first hand what this administration will do, even to the point that they'll sue me just to try and shut me down. It is what it is Ladies & Gentlemen and through elections YOU can make a difference. I have clearly proven I am not afraid of these people. Start rallying behind these movements and let them know you're not going to take this any more.

Thank You.