Communication
Don’t blame government for political abuses
A
message from PEF Retirees President Steve Muscarella
As
PEF members and retirees, we established our credentials through
education, training and experience that enabled us to qualify for civil
service exams and state employment.
Nevertheless, in recent decades we have endured an increasing barrage of
government and public-employee bashing that would have you believe
government is the problem, rather than the solution to our societal
ills.
This government bashing has distorted reality and confused the public
about the real source of waste, mismanagement and ineptitude.
Public employees keep the government functioning, provide vital services
and do it all, in many instances, despite a political environment that
often confuses our mission and drains our energy and resources.
Government bashers do not understand, or choose not to acknowledge, the
real reasons why government can become wasteful and ineffective. They
preach the indiscriminate reduction of government and the glories of
unregulated enterprise.
One should ask: Do we want to live in a society where mines explode and
lives are lost because of neglected health and safety rules? Where
mortgages and other financial instruments are misrepresented and
overvalued? Where we can’t trust auditors and where corporations create
environmental disasters threatening the planet’s ecology and the
livelihoods of millions of Americans?
Judicious oversight and regulation by government is essential in
preventing “Ponzi schemes” and Enron meltdowns, in protecting our food
supply, our health and the financial security of honest Americans.
Government is not the problem.
It’s political abuse that wastes our taxes, corrupts and misdirects
services, promotes patronage, and gerrymanders voting districts to
perpetuate the careers of the abusers.
We cannot stand by and allow our government and society to be dominated
by such corrupt and powerful interests.
The late American diplomat Chester Bowles was right when he said,
“Government is too big and important to be left to the politicians.”
We must help the public clearly distinguish between honest, qualified
government workers and wasteful, corrupt politicians.
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