Ode to Civil Service

Civil Service is such an innocuous term.  It sounds like it could represent a myriad of different things none of them having anything to to do with being an anonymous government employee.  In reality it is a time honored term to represent those that give their lives and careers to government in a belief that it has a role to play in society. 

These days the very guardians of our Civil Service seem neither civil nor dedicated toward service.  Instead of dignity and courtesy we are treated to a barrage of indignity and down right insolence.  Esteemed former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "The central conservative truth about politics is that it is culture not politics that determines the fate of society.  The central liberal truth is that politics can help change a culture and save it from itself."

While Senator Moynihan does a brilliant job of phrasing the philosophical clash of ideals between liberals and conservatives at its heart is an underpaid and often abused core of people that just try to make it all work.  Over the past thirty years government has been pruned of many of the low skill positions of the past.  Gone are the days of large secretarial pools and wrench turning positions.  These jobs have been farmed out to private contractors who are celebrated in the world of conservative capitalism as brilliant entrepreneurs. In reality they credit their stock prices to sucking of the tit of the American people more than any other business in America.  In their place is a largely college educated professional core.  People who made the decision in their lives to accept a kind of bargain.   They would never be rich.  They would forgo the stock market success of overnight wealth possible in the private world.  In its stead they asked simply for a decent wage and security of life and future.  I am one of those people.

In exchange for the simple bargain we would dedicate our professional lives to the service of the nation.  We would provide the essential functions that keep America operating, safe and secure.  We would offer our dedication to supporting the fortunes of a nation we considered the greatest in the world.  We never wanted to be considered stars or celebrities.  We just simply wanted a well deserved thank you every so often and to feel that our policy makers had our backs.  After all, it was their policies we were entrusted to propagate.  While we might not agree personally with every one we were obliged to pursue the wishes of the nation and in that responsibility we felt the need to engage in something far greater than ourselves. I have never seen government moral as low as it is today.  Some of us are allowed to work with no pay.  Others are furloughed and set aside.   Sure pay might come at some point after we all scramble to pay mortgages yet even that rips us apart as those that work wonder why they are compensated the same as those who didn't.  Our futures are talked about like they are nothing more than a bargaining chip.  Only when a specific function is brought to light and becomes a political inconvenience to our politicians feign to care.  Those politicians and their supporters progressively being brainwashed by FOX News are treated constantly with enlightened comments like "non-essential employees.  Right there that tells you, we don't need them!"

US Embassy Tanzania

I don't think of myself as anything special but when I look back on the 23 plus years of my career and those of my close friends I see men and women that have risked their own security and that of their families for the interest of the nation.  We have never complained and often done it without thinking twice.  After all, we are public servants right?  We made a deal and we will follow it. 

The past few years have marked a progressive betrayal of our dedication by our elected representatives that has culminated in a government shut down and complete abrogation of responsibility.  The irony of publicly paid officials working with a singular dedication to destroy the very institution that elected them is almost without equal.  These "patriots" who while professing their dedication to America, work day in and day out to destroy it.  They work with the insidious nature of a cancer and are far more effective in mission and goal than any foreign terrorist could ever perpetrate.  The other day the frustrations of a favorite radio host of mine, Pete Dominick, boiled over with the on air exclamation "When the fuck did we stop caring about people in this country?"

In the past our society always had a rational center.  A body of elected men and women with the good sense to work things out and solve problems with the interest of the nation in mind.  Today this center has vanished replaced by self interest, arrogance and hypocrisy.  History is cyclical and undoubtedly our government has suffered through dark periods in the past and survived.  My only regret is that in the waning stages of my career I must witness it first hand.  Apparently the days of service and civility have become foreign concepts to the Republican party and their minions.  As the nation approaches a default date on our national debt even the business community is starting to wonder what has happened to the party they considered their traditional allies in wealth propagation and self service in the wake of finical gain.

I do not regret my career yet I cannot help but weep at what has become of civility and service.  All around me people are jumping at the earliest chance to wash their hands of the mess and leave.  Honestly if I could retire tomorrow I would.  I would close the book on 23 years of dedication to service of mission and country with a chapter dedicated toward greed, self service and arrogance.  An ode to a state that has surrendered dignity and purpose to corporations, lobbyists and the self interests of publicly elected representatives.