P.C. Runs Amok in D.C.

My father works at a plant that uses and produces some nasty substances. Nobody on-site- not the operations-director, vice-president, the chemists, the secretaries, the janitor, the workers- no one is allowed to have a beard because if shit happens, and they have to run for the gas-masks, the things will not make an airtight seal around their faces, and they might die.

Political Correctness might be tolerable or even cute, until it ignorantly endangers lives:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday struck down a requirement that firefighters in the District of Columbia be clean-shaven.

A group of firefighters who wear beards for religious reasons first sued in 2001 to challenge the fire department's "grooming policy." That policy was replaced with a safety policy in 2005 that held that beards are not compatible with breathing units because they make it impossible to form a tight seal around the face.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that the district did not meet its burden of proof under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act to show that being clean-shaven is required to safely wear a self-contained breathing apparatus, or SCBA.

"Moreover, the Department has conceded that, for the vast majority of firefighter activity, a perfect seal between the face mask and the face is not required for safety," Robertson wrote. "The Department fully concedes that bearded firefighters have worn SCBA units for many years without incident."

I understand that most firefighters will not have to enter a burning structure, but what about a chemical fire? What about an entire firehouse of Muslims people that have religious reasons for not shaving their beards?

Lets say that a bunch of D.C. firefighters that have beards go to a burning house and there is a baby inside. Nobody can go in to rescue the terrified, screaming infant, because they can not use a mask.

This is the United States: The devastated mother of a dead baby will not accept inshallah as an explanation.

-Tommy