12 SEP 07
City of Chester City Council,
Mr. Mayor and members of council, thank you for allowing me to make a few remarks on behalf of the Union.
Ed Crawford passed the promotion exam for the first time back in 1985, but wasn’t promoted. His career batting average was 500, passing it 3 times and failing it 3 times. In the movie Hitch, Will Smith defines Perseverance as “Continuing in a course of action without regard to discouragement, opposition, or previous failure.” Ed Crawford is the epitome of perseverance.
Some have said passing the test doesn’t make you qualified for the position, and I agree. However the inverse is true, failing the test certainly makes you unqualified.
Profession is defined as an occupation requiring technical knowledge and academic training. Like law or medicine, our profession, the nation’s most hazardous, must have unyielding ethics and standards. For example, most professions regard cheating on a test as reprehensible, repugnant, grounds for expulsion or dismissal. I have always said Ed Crawford is ethical to a fault. His father taught him right from wrong, and that there is no gray area. Don’t try to be right all the time, try to do right all the time. Well Ed, I think your old man would approve.
I’ve been glad to call him friend, proud to call him brother, and now I am honored to call him Captain.
Congratulations and God Speed.