Stop bashing government workers, by Katrina vanden Heuvel

[jefferson_dem]

Stop bashing government workers
By Katrina vanden Heuvel, Monday, September 5, 12:29 PM

Two thousand and eleven has been one of the toughest years for public workers that I can remember. Every month until this past one, the private sector has added jobs, and every month the public sector has lost them. The August employment report shows that the public sector got hit hard again — losing 17,000 jobs. In states across the country, public workers aren’t just being laid off; they’re being made into economic scapegoats. These workers deserve to be treated fairly any time. But in the wake of Hurricane Irene, as we watched teams of federal, state and local government workers tirelessly saving lives, and on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, they deserve much better.

The last decade has been marked by both peril and possibility, and in all of it there has been no shortage of American heroes. Many, if not the vast majority, worked for the government — as firefighters and police, as teachers and rescue workers. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, men and women proudly wore hats and shirts labeled “FDNY” and “NYPD.” When we wept for our nation, it was the bravery of the first responders that reminded us of our national character. There was a new-found respect for public service and a heartening change in how Americans viewed their government. Fire and police departments, organizations such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps saw a surge in applicants. We didn’t just want to believe in those workers. We wanted to be them.

In the 10 years since, those and other public workers haven’t been any less heroic or any less essential. But they have been significantly less appreciated, even demonized. “There are a lot of government employees that need to go find a real job,” snorted Rep. Paul Broun, a Tea Party favorite, in June. For too many on the right, a government worker isn’t a worker at all.

This, more than anything, comes from a broadening acceptance that government can do no good. Anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist infamously called for government to be made so small that it could be drowned in a bath tub. But even among the far-right fringes, it used to be the case that government, though small, was supposed to serve essential functions. Chief among them: the obligation to provide security to its citizens, doing for the people what no private corporation could.

<SNIP>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/stop-bashing-government-workers/2011/09/04/gIQAwugE4J_story.html

[lunatica]

1. We are going to pay dearly for this

The only consolation I feel is that the teabaggers will pay just as much as everyone else.

[Scurrilous]

2. K & R

:thumbsup:

[AverageJoe90]

3. Seconded.

[SidDithers]

4. K&R...nt

Sid

[KT2000]

5. The man who jumped

to his death after he was notified of layoffs is discussed in the latest New Yorker. He was someone who could anything that was needed in his job with the city of Costa Mesa. He made $26 an hour. When they privatized, they had to pay $40 an hour to replace him.
He was treated like crap because that is what is acceptable now. Shame.