Day 28 of 365 (Stuff that works)

Today a good friend of mine is retiring. He has solidly served the State of Michigan for many years. Conducting his affairs he put in solid effort; a yeoman who finishes his tasks with quality work and on time. He believes in the concept of a government working for the common good and betterment of the people. With an eye toward progress he has doggedly pursued new ideas and new techniques to make things here work more efficiently and to create a better end product. He has never been just a drone putting in his years until retirement. 

 His actions have always been constrained by what I believe is the “group mind” of this large organization. In any large organization there is always a fear of the new. There is also always present a fear of the potential of an idea or a project’s failure and of being made the party to take the fall for what went wrong. Finally there is always the fear best stated as the “what happens to my world, my fiefdom, my way of living”, question that bogs things down with inertia so massive it could stop Jupiter in its orbit. He has never been one that has shown those kinds of fear or who has let those fears stand in the way. He has always pushed people to do better. 

 With the disdain that has been heaped upon government workers by conservative groups through the years it is amazing that any of us hang on. But public service is something that is honorable. As long as we government employees remember (and make it our focus) that we are representing the “people” and that we are ultimately accountable to the “people” there is no shame in being a government employee. It is not the forms we fill out or the paper we shuffle (for transparency and accountability) that matter, it is what service we have provided our fellow citizens. He has embodied as high a standard of service as any government employee I know. He will be missed.