The Oregon Department of Forestry’s second-in-command has been put on administrative leave for committing what is now, apparently, considered misfeasance. His sin?
The official, one Mike Shaw, resolved to hire at his bureau the “candidates most qualified for the job.”
That’s what Megan Donecker — a purple-haired, tattooed DEI trainer who filed a complaint against him — said he told her, anyway.
But Shaw’s trespasses didn’t end there. Donecker also claims that “six queer staffers didn’t ‘feel safe or comfortable’ at work because they could not have ‘conversation around pronouns,’” reports the Daily Mail.
Whether or not this is what you’re supposed to be doing at work, on the taxpayer’s dime, was not reported.
Upside-down World
The Mail continues:
The tattooed Salem resident describes herself as an “accomplice to marginalized communities.” Her complaint is one of several from employees and others that the department amounts to an “old boys’ club.”
Since standing down from her role at the forestry department, she’s continued working as a DEI consultant.
The files were released as part of a public records request by OregonLive. State forestry chiefs say they take the complaints seriously and are investigating whether anybody has faced discrimination.
Oregon’s progressive Governor Tina Kotek — who was hit by a corruption scandal for hiring her wife — has also waded into the drama, with her office saying she backs all efforts to “advance DEI.”
Oregon has been roiled by culture wars between progressives in such liberal cities as Portland, and conservatives, including residents of the state’s rural and forested eastern areas, who want to break away and join Idaho.
Donecker, who describes herself as an avid Dungeons and Dragons player who lives with her wife, Jai, an adopted nine-year-old and two cats, quit her job at the department in March after falling out with bosses.
Now, it’s interesting that Donecker described herself above as an “accomplice,” a word with a generally negative connotation. It reveals she either isn’t good with English — or that she is and is more self-aware than one may suppose.
Anyway, the video below summarizes the case and provides pictures of Donecker and Shaw. Do these people appear as you’d suspect?
Don’t Be Careful — Be Committed
The irony is that Shaw didn’t even express the common, every-man belief that “diversity, equity, and inclusion” is pure bunk. He simply didn’t want to jump the shark with it. As the New York Post informs:
Shaw first drew Donecker’s ire when he dared suggest the agency — which has over 1,400 employees and a biennial budget over $577 million — take a measured approach to DEI initiatives, likening plunging into them headlong to driving too fast on “an icy road.”
Donecker claimed Shaw further added, “We don’t go 60 [mph] out of the gate, or we’re gonna crash the car.”
Donecker additionally accused “the department of functioning as a ‘boys club,’ according to the formal complaint,” the Post also relates. How she could be certain that “boys” were at issue, and how she had the temerity to judge someone else’s “gender,” was also not reported.
Idiocracy Cometh
As the Post points out, however, the shine appears to be off DEI — at least in name. For example, Clackamas County, Oregon, announced January “that it had started to unwind its $830,000-per-year DEI office,” the paper wrote. The county called it “an ‘unnecessary expense’ which ‘only foments friction.’” Regarding this deep insight, the government officials did not reveal what their first clue was.
Yet as the above paragraph’s opening line suggests, the deeper issue is that the problem isn’t “DEI,” per se. It’s that the mentality it represents has long infused our society, no matter what label it wears. It’s a devil that, upon being recognized and discredited, continually changes its guise so it can continue beguiling victims. Just consider the following article headlines (which are accompanied by their publication year):
There also was the court case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. It involved the constitutionality of a University of California affirmative-action program back in 1978. The Supreme Court found it unconstitutional, but, nonetheless, such programs plague us still. Conclusion?
Sea Change in Thinking
Again, the problem is mentality. It’s cultural. It’s one thing to offer poor people charity — financial assistance, counsel, etc. (in accordance with the Constitution). Most Americans will cheer when seeing a gifted but cash-strapped individual given help that enables him to realize his potential. But the less competent must never, ever, be elevated above the more so. It’s not just that this harms society, either. It’s also that we hurt people when we enable them to live a lie. As with children given participation trophies, such individuals never enjoy the sense of accomplishment earning one’s stripes does. They often feel insecure and inadequate, too, which can lead to psychological and interpersonal problems.
The reality is, though, the DEI mentality won’t be eradicated until exhibiting it is stigmatized as political incorrectness is today. Until those who even suggest indulging it are scorned and shunned, nothing will change.
Remember that in culture wars, nice guys really do finish last.
