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Subject:Re: So many jobs want CURRENT security clearances From:Allen Schaaf <soundbyte -at- sound-by-design -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sat, 16 Aug 2003 07:59:39 -0700
At 11:35 AM 8/15/03 -0400, Jan Cohen wrote:
[snip]
>I never said that. Read my paragraph again. What I did imply was that
>sometimes there are things that are simply out of our reach and no matter how hard we try, we might not be able to obtain them. In your case, this *might* mean obtaining a security clearance prior to be employed by someone who requires such.
A perfect example of this type of situation is where one's heritage is not on the "approved" list. If you don't think this can't happen, stop and think for a minute. Could a relative of someone accused of industrial spying get a clearance easily on their own merits? Probably not, and it's not anything they did or would even think of doing. It's just that they have an association with a suspect character.
My brother is an extreme paranoid with severe delusions of persecution. I talk with him as little as possible, but I do talk with him on occasion. I doubt very much I could get anything other than the low level clearance I hold to teach in the county jail. Nothing specific was said, but it was clear eyebrows were raised.
The other situation is that we are making more and more people outcasts in our own society. It is a problem that will only become greater over time with a class system based on those who can get a "clearance" and those who can't.
This will not harm us as a society in the near term, but over time will cast a pall over democracy.
I give you one additional parallel: skill sets. I'm sure that you have seen job descriptions where you can not meet written requirements, but can do the job. "Documentum experience will not meet the needs, it must be XYZ or nothing." A lack of understanding of the transferability of skills becomes a dividing line, not a tool to make sure that the person can do the job needed.
We seem to be a society bent on dividing up rather than including in.
