Dick Meister: Scapegoating Public Empoyees

[Joanne98]

Let's pause for a moment to recognize some of our most important, yet most maligned workers. They are teachers and librarians. Police officers and firefighters. Bus drivers, doctors and nurses. Judges, lawyers, gardeners. They're laborers and other maintenance and construction workers, and many others who provide us vital services.

They are public employees. There are millions of them, who every day do the essential work that keeps our country going.

It is they who keep our streets and highways, our parks and playgrounds safe and clean, who collect our trash. It is they who help educate our children, who provide emergency health care, who convey us to our jobs and back home after our day's work, who sometimes risk their very lives to protect us from harm.

Yet despite all that – and more – public employees have come under heavy bipartisan attack by politicians who find them easy targets to blame for the budget shortfalls that have beset government at all levels. Labor costs, after all, make up the bulk of government spending everywhere.

There's no way around that basic fact. So if we want all those vital services public employees provide – and we do – that's the price we must pay, and should be happy to pay. Certainly no group of workers has done more for us, none who are more important to our welfare, none more deserving of their wages.

http://www.sfbg.com/bruce/2011/02/14/dick-meister-scapegoating-public-empoyees

[vankuria]

1. Thank-you!

I'm a recently retired public employee (32 yrs) for NYS. I was a social worker, tending to the neediest and most vulnerable citizens. I did a job that was difficult, heartbreaking at times and often posed risks to my safety. As difficult as my job was I loved helping people. There are many folks out there living very marginal existences that rely on public services to survive and every human being deserves to live with dignity and respect. I decided to retire because my whole dept. is being phased out. From a staff of probably 40 there are only about 9 left. Many of the people served will not survive without services and will likely end up in long term care which as everyone knows will end up costing the state even more.

I am angry that I keep having to defend the pension I paid into (3%) out of every paycheck for 24 years. I'm angry that vital services that people depend on are being taken away. I'm angry when I hear people talk about "spoiled public employees", "entitlements", and feeding off the "public till".

I did a job for more than half my life that most people would never want to do. I worked in a building that was falling apart, had a leaky roof with antiquated plumbing and you couldn't drink the water. In spite of this, I loved what I did and there is no higher calling in life than to help those less fortunate. I earned every penny of my pension, damn it!

(Thanks for letting me ramble and vent!)

[Joanne98]

2. You're welcome and thank you for your service.

[roxiejules]

3. Is it no wonder....

that teachers, police officers and other once honored professions are now under attack?

Our culture has lost respect for all that is sacred - the land, the water and connections to each other. It is robbing us of our humanity.

We don't even respect ourselves anymore.