Page 8 — THE LACONIA DAILY SUN, Friday, June 15, 2012
LETTERS Men can’t evaluate women’s performance objectively? Ridiculous To the editor, John Demakowski was right, Professor Sandy would be better served by submitting his columns as book reports rather than commentary. I would like to add that the professor might also be better served by writing letters on topics he knows something about . . . as difficult as it might be to find that something. In Tuesday’s issue of The Laconia Daily Sun, while trying to demonstrate to women that he supports their cause, he actually demeans their accomplishments. Perhaps some of Professor Sandy’s assumptions can be excused as it appears that he has no reference point aside from his tenured position. However, I am not as kind and gentle as Mr. Demakowski and I prefer to point out some of the professor’s failings. Back in 1963, I was working at our company headquarters when the Equal Pay Act was signed into law by President Kennedy. Immediately after that, women received pay adjustments which brought them up to the same levels as their male counterparts. In addition, the company paid huge amounts to them as retroactive compensation. From that point on, in our company, gender was not a distinguishing factor, performance was. Over my career I worked with many people with various talents and abilities. Some achieved success because of their intelligence, others because they simply outworked their competition, others because they had academically attained knowledge that was useful in performing their assigned task, and so on. Managers came in all genders and skin pigmentations. Some were “up through the ranks” and some had been highly recruited for the company’s fast track management development program. Managers at one level came together to rate and rank those who were one or more levels below them. That rating and ranking was based on the subordinates “performance”, not their gender, or skin color, or level of education. In the tenure cocoon that surrounds him, the professor has probably never been part of putting together a business plan. Words like Mission, Objec-
tives, Strategies, and Tactics may sound militaristic to him, simply because he has never been privy to things outside the academic world . . . and, in spite of my many times suggesting he spend some time with professors of business to get a grasp on real world issues, he seems to have chosen to take pride in maintaining his ignorance of the business world. The professor’s words are devoid of integrity. First, he has a comprehension deficit when it comes to rating and ranking on a bell curve. In the companies I worked for, women who performed better than men were paid at a higher level than their male and female counterparts, because they earned it. That may be foreign to the professor who has told me, in private communications, that at Plymouth State, the professors want everyone to get paid the same. It doesn’t matter if they’re worst or first; give them all the same raise. The next absurdity from the professor is that men can’t evaluate women’s performance on a gender neutral basis. I think we need to get the proverbial “donkey stick” out and use it on the professor’s noggin. There are many women in higher management and executive positions. Obviously that wouldn’t have happened if their male supervisors didn’t evaluate them based on performance, not gender. However, these numbers require a deeper understanding on the types of degrees that have been sought by men and those sought by women. For example, over four times more engineering and computer science degrees are awarded to men than to women. The reverse is true in the fields of education, library sciences, social services, and psychology, where women dominate. Which fields do you think are more useful to businesses? Many companies have expressed concern that our colleges are turning out students who, quite simply, haven’t learned the skills that businesses are looking for. Professor Sandy, it appears, is a contributor to that problem. Bob Meade Laconia
GOP would rather you drive off bridge than make Obama look good To the editor, Who to believe this time around, before we fall apart? They will say anything, anytime and to anyone just to get elected for all those perks. Time to eliminate the perks to make them work for the American people. They spend most of their time fundraising, going on “fact finding” trips to exotic places that we will NEVER see and probably have never even heard of. Who cares, as its not their money they are spending. If they want a vacation let them spend their own money on it. Like Romney comparing our eduction system to some overseas schools. WE should “follow” their example he says. Are their schools better than ours? All this while attacking the school unions. Teacher layoffs are at the top of his list of things to do. Remember he still has that $10,000,000 invested in his son Tagg’s charter schools PE firm. Now the Republicans are the party of the “gay”. Book early for P-town as there might be that fact finding trip there this summer. This was an early switch this morning so the facts are still unclear. Still a little confused on how this has anything to do with jobs. The job bill is in the House NOW, so pass it Republicans, it has passed the Senate. It creates about 1-million jobs, will lower the unemployment rate and will make our infrastructure safer. But the lowering of our unemployment rate is what bothers the Repub-
licans because it makes Obama look good and that is the last thing they want. They would rather have you drive off a collapsed bridge than make Obama look good. They don’t care about you or the rest of us because we aren’t rich enough to donate. They only care about the Republican Party and NOT the country and that, to me, is treason. Both parties have made mistakes, spent money recklessly and have used the job for personal gains. Time for this to STOP. Both parties have good ideas but rarely follow up on them. Republicans said they were for responsible spending while Bush ran up large unfunded expenses. Romney should come clean with his tax and finances history. Obama has complied with birth certificate complaints (except to Trump). Now both parties are doing the finger pointing thing at each other over — you did — no I didn’t — yes you did — etc. That’s just wasting our time because we really don’t know who is telling us the truth — changes day by day. My idea is this. Fact check each statement before posting -— will delay a day or so. Lastly, NO more debates or political ads for a week before the elections. Let the voters figure out who is telling the truth and who isn’t without anyone trying to influence them. Might even work. Jon Hoyt Bridgewater
Times says leaks came right from Obama’s national security team To the editor, Interesting things are happening in Washington these past few weeks. I just wonder if liberals and Democrats are paying any attention or just listening to the Obama speak out of the White House? Sen. John McCain condemned the security leaks coming from the White House and the president’s press secretary Jay Carney called the charges “grossly irresponsible”. Really? The N.Y. Times says the leaks came from “aides” to the president and “members of the president’s national security team.” David Sanger of the Times and author of one of the stories wrote that some of his sources
would be fired for divulging classified material to him. Now someone is wrong here, either Carney or McCain and the N.Y. Times. Who do you trust in this instance? Attorney General Holder has assigned two assistant JD attorneys to investigate the case. This is the same Eric Holder who is stonewalling the hearings on Fast and Furious the gun running fiasco and is now being threatened with contempt of congress. Again, who do you trust? Did anyone over there hear what long time Democrat leaders like John Kerry, Dianne Feinstein, and Pat Caddell had to say about it? Really now, see next page
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