It seems to be increasingly popular these days to attack government employees as a drain on society. In this blog and elsewhere government employees are described as people who do not want to work hard, who simply suck up tax dollars for selfish reasons and don’t give a damn about taxpayers in general. In this environment one would wonder why any young person embarking on a career would take a government job.
Those who lead the bashing of government employees are missing the mark, and they are doing us all who turn to government to pull our fat out of the fire a disservice. It is those very employees that arrest criminals in our midst, put out fires that threaten our property, care for our elderly because no one else will, protect children from abusive parents and caretakers, deal with our hazardous waste and sewage, respond to complaints ranging from graffiti to rodents in our neighborhoods, and many other tasks that few of us want to even talk about.
Then there are teachers, another target of government haters. They are billed as failing our kids while dealing with kids come to them who can’t read, who can’t speak English, who cant share with other kids, who eargerly engage in fighting and other hurtful behavior, who know some of the most vulgar language imaginable yet don’t know how to say thank you or excuse me. They care for kids whose parents can’t get them to school on time, who forget to pick them up after school leaving their child crying on the steps of the school office, and who complain that new furlough days mean the parents, not the teachers, will have to care for their kids on those days.
When asked how much she earned, one teacher is reported as responding thusly: “”Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner. I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can’t make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental. You want to know what I make? I make kids wonder. I make them question. I make them apologize and mean it. I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions. I teach them how to write and then I make them write and that texting isn’t everything. I make them read, read, read. I make them show all their work in math. They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator. I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity. I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe including many who do not feel safe in their own homes. That includes spending my money and weekend time to supply and decorate my classroom so it will be cheerful and ready for the students every Monday. I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, One Nation Under God, because we live in the United States of America. Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life.”
As a society we seem to more and more be identifying groups or classes of people and attacking them – minorities, immigrants, Republicans and Democrats, elected office holders, government employees, people who live in Santa Ana, CEO’s, etc. It appears to me that this negativity is producing an uncivilized community on this blog and elsewherewhere we don’t care about each other. It is time we stop this feeding frenzy that sees us taking delight in putting someone or some group down. You can start by thanking a deserving government employee for being there for all of us. They do exist, you know.
“As a society we seem to more and more be identifying groups or classes of people and attacking them”
That’s true.
What’s also true is that government employees who have a virtual monopoly on providing certain services have leveraged political influence through union activity to bestow benefits that are not in line with what they do, and whose unsustainable costs are passed on to us.
tony great points . these public employee unions cry no layofs for us, no pay cuts , they fail to understand WE PAY THERE SALARIES .. AND WHEN YOU TAX , N TAX AND TAKE AND TAKE, FORM THE PRIVATE SECTOR . GUESS WHAT NO MORE . when the ecomny got bad how many of these public union hacks got laid off compared ot the private sector wich is the life blood .
“As a society we seem to more and more be identifying groups or classes of people and attacking them – minorities, immigrants, Republicans and Democrats, elected office holders, government employees, people who live in Santa Ana, CEO’s, etc. It appears to me that this negativity is producing an uncivilized community on this blog and elsewherewhere we don’t care about each other.”
MQ says:
We do care! We care that people around us are struggling to pay their taxes, feed their families and do the right thing every day!
I think it has come to the point where the conversation has turned strong and the attitudes is one of “justice”. I can understand why!
People in general are sick and tired of being lied too, used, abused and ignored. In general the American people are very passive, but no more!
And that is a good thing, nothing to apologize for!
The list of people you presented as being ATTACKED should take a good long look in the mirror and ask the simple question WHY?
P.S. My teachers never looked like Doris Day, either.
I thank those public servants who meet the needs of our society. I thank school teachers, police, firefighters and and those others who quietly help us. I don’t thank agencies or commissions whose service to the community is as nebulous as their government titles.
One glaring example of nebulous entity is the Orange County Human relations commission that is committed to “managing diversity”. First, what is “manage diversity”? Second, why does a county need to “manage diversity”.
As the son of two public school teachers I grew up appreciating their hard work and dedication for little compensation. The trade off used to be less pay in exchange for more job security. Unfortunately, as unions have increasingly put a stranglehold on California politics the highly compensated, horribly mediocre public employee with a pension beyond the imagination of those in private industry has become the norm. Are there good public servants out there? Or course – unfortunately union pressures have controlled the ballot box and created situations in which a 38 year old public servant can retire with full pension and start a new career while living off of the public dole. The pendulem is about to swing back and I do fear for the many public servants and union shills that will be crushed by the backswing.
Geoff is right. Instead of sob stories from teachers and the typical police/fire ploy, let’s look at the real problem, the union leaders who use their members as tokens and propaganda. The union bosses trot out the firefighter with the smudge on his face, or a widow of a police officer killed in the line of duty and use them to extract more and more from the hard working tax payers. Does that mean we do not appreciate the work that many of our public servants do? No. I know that police officers and firefighters risk their lives daily to do a job many of us would not or could not do. And my wife is a teacher so I know the sacrifices many of them make to teach our children. But that does not mean we have to accept every unreasonable demand from the unions, or put up with the double and triple dippers and retired public employees making over $100,000 per year on our backs. Reasonable and unions do not go together, and I reserve the right to be outraged despite the fact that the unions will point to my outrage and spin it to further their own fat salaries. Californians and Americans have had enough.