Good morning, breakfastpoppers. Today is Tuesday, June 30, 2009. In honor of yesterday's Supreme Court decision in favor of the New Haven firefighters, let's prepare a delicious Red Berry Shake so that we can raise our glasses in celebration of a common sense decision.

This recipe serves two, so invite someone over or indulge yourself. We need 1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and halved, 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks, 1/2 cup fresh raspberries and 2 tablespoons frozen and defrosted limeade.

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Serve immediately and enjoy!

...POP...Six years ago, in New Haven, Connecticut firefighters took an exam for promotion. The group that passed the exam was composed of eighteen white men, one of them Hispanic. The men were denied promotions in spite of their solid performance on the test, because none of the African-American firefighters passed the exam.

The case came before Justice Sotomayor and was dismissed with just a few brief sentences. Yesterday the case came before the Supreme Court and in a 5-4 decision the court upheld the firefighters claim that they were discriminated against and had earned the right to be promoted. 

To me common sense prevailed, although not unanimously. Basically the court said that if an employer uses a test for promotion purposes, it has to accept the results unless the employer considered the test to be flawed.  Common sense tells me that if certain standards are deemed necessary for promotion, then these standards must apply equally to everyone. Exceptions should not be made based upon race or religion because to do so is to state that somehow those who didn't pass were incapable of succeeding because of their race or background. This is utter nonsense and also utterly insulting. If the test is a valid one, then the results are valid too. To those who didn't pass, study harder. That's real life and people of all races and nationalities go through it every day.

A case in point is the firefighter who is dyslexic and wanted to try for promotion. Instead of whining about his handicap, he hired someone to record the study materials and he worked like crazy to overcome his problem. My hat goes off to him for his determination to succeed, and succeed he did. Finally, his accomplishment will be rewarded thanks to the Supreme Court ruling.

So, let's raise our our Red Berry Shakes to a victory well-deserved. Hmmm, the shake is delicious and so is the decision.