Thank your local civil service worker

At the start of 2020, there was international chatter about a strange flu. Evidently, in the city of Wuhan, people were getting sick and China was silent on the matter. I don’t remember the first time I heard of the word Covid, but by late February it was spoken in almost every newscast. By mid-March, the US was shut down.

I remember driving through my neighborhood. There was no traffic. The roads were empty. I felt like I had woken up in some strange post-apocalyptic movie. One thing that stuck out among the empty streets were all the signs of support. These signs expressed love for all the essential workers: the nurses, the doctors, the grocery clerks, the bus drivers, the cooks. Everyone who put themselves on the line for their country.

Some of these people died in service to us. They died as heroes and while their names and stories may be lost to time, their sacrifice kept our country together.

A second plague

In the less than ten years, the US is suffering from a new plague. Whereas the first one came from China, this second one appears to have crossed over from South Africa. While Covid was indiscriminate in its execution, this new plague is deliberate and methodological. Covid was an equal opportunity killer. This killer discriminates. Whereas Covid targeted any living human, this plague is targeting any person who took an oath to serve their country.

Its name is Elon Musk and the damage it is doing to both the country and its people are incalculable.

Every day there are new reports of this plague moving from agency to agency, leaving a trail of wreckage in its wake. At least with Covid we could analyze the effects of the destruction. With Musk, everything happens behind locked doors. Once open institutions are no longer accessible to the people whom they were built to serve. All we hear are faint whispers.

Musk kills in darkness while he jeers in public. Covid at least had the grace to allow us to mourn in silence.

The machinery of democracy

This is a real truth: the United States exists and functions because of the civil service. These people work for low pay to keep the machinery of government operating. Politicians pass laws. The civil service makes those laws happen. While politicians talk about democracy, the civil service actually puts democracy into action. There cannot be a free and open society without people to do the hard work of making it possible.

These American heroes are under attack right now. They are being pressured to quit their jobs en masse without any consideration about downstream effects. They are being harassed and told that their contributions to society amount to nothing.

Authoritarians like Musk hate these people because they limit what he can do. When Musk tried to launch his first Starship, the rocket created a concrete tornado of destruction. It rained dirt and sand on the surrounding communities, while pelting the ocean with concrete slabs. His recent launch exploded over the Gulf of Mexico, raining debris over island communities. In both cases, the FAA shut him down for public safety. Who is going to hold the line when there is no one left to keep him accountable?

Express your gratitude

When soldiers go to war, people tie yellow bows around their trees as a reminder that a loved one was in harm’s way. When the pandemic hit, we saw signs everywhere expressing our love for our first responders. For our civil service, there is nothing.

Our civil service is in the fight of their lives. Each battle is being waged behind closed doors. People are being laid off, stripped of their health insurance and cast aside for serving their country. Some are even being abandoned in foreign countries without any direction.

Make no mistake, this isn’t about shrinking the size of the government. This is about breaking the machinery of democracy and pillaging governmental data. This is a full on assault on the rule of law.

For all of you fed workers, thank you for your service. Thank you for protecting our country. Thank you for making us great.

I know this must be a living hell for you. But I see you. I read your stories. I appreciate all you have done for the United States and for all you continue to do. Especially in the face of such monsters.

And for those of you not a federal worker, maybe tie a silver bow around a tree or put out a sign supporting your federal neighbors. Or just give them thanks. But call your representatives and DEMAND an end to this assault. They are fighting for our republic and they need all of our support.