If you don’t wish to have your every move scrutinized, you’re pleased to read Tom Shoop’s September 18, 2006, article, stating that “the media doesn’t do a very good job of covering the federal government.”
Whether or not you agree with that assertion, and I agree with it, the Understanding Government Foundation and its website, especially “The Forum,” which you are now reading, exists precisely to place the spotlight on executive branch operations.
Our intent, of course isn’t merely or only to catch someone doing something wrong. It is also, as Kenneth Blanchard said in The One-Minute Manager, to catch someone doing something right.
There are plenty of creative, intelligent, and hardworking government employees who are making citizens’ daily lives better simply because they care and are concerned with providing services effectively at reasonable costs. We want to hear from those public entrepreneurs. We want them to share their secrets of success, their passions, their commitments. We want to learn from them, so that success can be replicated and replicated and replicated.
That’s redundant, isn’t it? But you get the point.
Tom Shoop’s column essentially validates our Foundation’s raison d’etre. Everything we do is geared to better understand and, in the process, improve the quality of government services. That may sound pompous and hokey, but it is why I do what I do, whatever that is……
One thing that struck me about Tom’s column was his finding that thousands of articles were written about problems with the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, but virtually none discussed possible solutions to the executive branch’s ineffectual actions at all levels: national, state, and local. Perhaps government ops are too dry and esoteric, as Tom asserts. Perhaps it’s merely simpler to complain than to contribute.
This phenomenon reminds me of the expression: “Everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” Of course, we know that no one can control the weather. But do people also feel that their government is akin to a force of nature, incapable of being tamed and managed effectively?
Well, “The Forum” is here, and discuss such issues we shall, but we can only do it well with your voices.
Another point made in Shoop’s article is that reporters need to have their feet held to the fire in covering – or not -- such important government failings as FEMA’s role in disaster assistance and the like. At the Understanding Foundation, we couldn’t agree more. That, too, -- the care and feeding of energetic journalists to uncover, dissect, and analyze the inner-workings of the Executive Branch –- is a prime reason that Charles Peters founded this organization and began its website and “The Forum.”
So, join in. Participate! This is your government.
Variations of the following expression have appeared many places before; however, it’s a truism to say that you get the government you deserve. If citizens – or executive branch employees – decide to sit back and observe from the sidelines, taking at will pot shots at this person or that as it suits their fancy, then we will move quickly towards a destination of nothingness, at best, or government services oblivion, at worst.
As is always the case, the choice is yours. Will you observe? Or will you participate? Please don’t make the mistake of many, thinking that your opinions don’t matter.
You have something of substance to bring to the table. Unfortunately, there will be nothing for all of us to sup on unless you bring it.
++++
Fred W. Apelquist, III, M.Ed.
Approximately 580 words.
© September, 2006