Topics: African Americans, Civics, Civil Rights, Democracy, Existentialism, Human Rights
It's been a while since I've posted.
I've been busy at my federal work, a large part of it after rescinding all previous telework agreements. I am now commuting an hour and ten minutes to and from my work site five days a week, in good traffic. Some of my coworkers drive two and two-and-a-half hours one way, five days a week, four to five hours daily. It could be worse than it is.
Regardless, I'm exhausted, and that, per the OMB director, seems to be the point. However, recalling the sage wisdom of our ancestor, General Colin Powell:
"You need to understand, if you take out a government, take out a regime, guess who becomes the government and regime and is responsible for the country? You are. So if you break it, you own it."
Meaning (to me at least), the consequences of "traumatizing federal workers" will be felt in myriad ways. We are experiencing some of that ownership in how flights are no longer routine, safe, and guaranteed to land without spectacular crashes. Foreign countries and private entities are soliciting fired federal workers with Master's and PhDs with the assurance that their work will continue. There are legions of federal workers between your FEMA relief, your Social Security checks, and your VA benefits. Once this delicate balance of competency and bureaucracy is broken, it will take a generation to convince the best and brightest to consider federal work. For those who complain that federal workers are lazy or stupid, it may become a self-fulfilling prophecy as only the stupid will dare apply.
"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to a size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." Grover Norquist, Interview on NPR's Morning Edition, May 25, 2001. "Mission accomplished."
1865 to 1945 is 80 years, as is 1945 to 2025. At the end of the Second World War, my father was still a second-class citizen. Soldiers and sailors of color were offered "trade school," while their Anglo-Saxon counterparts were given the full GI Bill for education through their doctorates, VA loans to purchase homes, and build wealth. The inequality was built into the system my father had to endure, but he, and African American veterans like him, from Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell, have endured time and again, save this republic for the promissory note written in the Declaration of Independence: if "all men are [not] created equal," they should have stated so clearly from the nation's beginning. In 80 years of Civil Rights, led initially by African American veterans like Medgar Evers, we still struggle with this false hierarchy created in this country when Europeans became "white."
I have decided to limit posts to weekends, off the clock, as I am on this federal holiday.
I am still proud to be the son of Robert Harrison Goodwin. I am still proud of his service.
Happy Memorial Day, Pop.