Public servants provide essential services

The "My Turn" article in Press on March 21 finally angered me enough to give a piece of my mind concerning the profession of being a government employee or "public servant."

For those such as Robert Roberts who apparently don't know who takes care of many of their necessary daily needs in this society, a government employee is a public servant. Based on the headline for the article I assume it was intended to discuss how local taxes can kick people from their homes, but Roberts spends a great deal of space berating government employees.

In his article he insinuates that government employees don't have an honest job and government employees are thieving pigs because anyone who takes home a paycheck from a public trough should be arrested for grand larceny. Writing and printing this type of crap continues to feed the animosity and hatred folks have for their government and its employees and may also endanger these employees and their families by empowering other radical thinkers to hate and maybe harm them.

I have been faced with that hatred for many years and continue to deal with it from time to time in my current job. How would you like to have someone stand up in a public meeting, indicate that he knows where you live and threaten to kill your wife and kids and burn your house down because you are a public servant?

I have spent the past 50 years as a public servant at the local, state and federal level of government. I have met and worked with many dedicated and hardworking government employees as well as some who were poor employees and were not dedicated to their public service. This isn't any different than the private sector where every organization has good employees and the poor ones that need to be removed from their jobs.

It's time to educate the public and Mr. Roberts a little about the positive impacts public servants have on their lives.

Our children's education depends on the work of the administrators and teachers in our school systems; public servants are responsible for the safe drinking water that comes out of our taps; they are responsible for collecting and treating our sewage before it's dumped in a river; someone manages garbage pickup and disposal; someone inspects our meat and other food products so that we are not poisoned by contaminated food; someone is responsible for testing and approving the medications we take to insure that some crooked company isn't making and selling a product that may harm or kill us; public servants guide our airplanes through the sky and to their destinations; they provide fire protection and policing; they design, build and maintain our highway, road and street systems; our military public servants serve and protect our country; public servants insure that the general public doesn't become the victim of some out of control private entity out to make money at any cost. This is only a partial list and these are just a few of the many government employee jobs we all depend on.

Articles such as Mr. Roberts' can only further damage the relationship between the public and the government employees who are serving them. Being hated by the people you are serving and having those hatreds printed in the newspaper will not improve the service the public gets. Being called pigs and crooks will not bring improvement but animosity by the government employees directed back to those in the public expressing hatred toward them.

Over the last few years I've begun asking myself, should any quality individual enter or stay in public service and does the public they serve deserve a reasonable level of dedication to the job? Roberts' article and printing it says probably not, at least in this community! The next time you take a public servant for granted or express your animosity and hatred toward them, remember that your life may depend on them doing a good job for you.

Terry Harwood is an Athol resident.