The Sage Observer

Public Servant or Master

                    Do you really think a public servant is a de facto public servant, i.e. serving the needs and interests of the public for whom he works and by whom he is paid, if he puts his personal interests and goals ahead of those whom he is supposed to serve? From another point of view—how long do you think you would last in a job working for a private corporation if you put your personal interests and goals ahead of those of the corporation?

Let me tell you a story and, what I’m going to tell you, I swear before God is true. Many years ago, my mother was dying (on her deathbed) in Ohio. My wife went up there to be with her and care for her—I could not leave my job here; and, since we also had a young son in school, I had to put him in daycare after school until I could leave work at the end of the day to pick him up. Inasmuch as the daycare closed at 6:00 o’clock P.M., I had to leave work at 5:30. Would you believe, I received a letter from my boss telling me I had to decide to either be a member of his company or to be a father.

This is an extraordinary occurrence. I recognize that. I worked in corporate life for over thirty years and this is the only time I ever worked for anyone that bad, but I’m trying to make a point. And that is, when you work for someone, they, within reason (and my example was beyond reason) they expect and demand your loyalty and utmost effort to do the job which you accepted with them. If you don’t, they will replace you just as surely as God made little green apples.

Let me ask you another question. If you were working for an employer and you simultaneously served the interests of his competitor rather than his. How long would you last? For that matter, would you consider yourself loyal? Or, if your employer was your country, would you consider yourself a loyal patriot? Or, conversely, would you be unpatriotic? Now that’s a thought—isn’t it?

Let me tell you something, folks; and you have to know by this time that I’m telling you the truth. We, our nation, are in serious trouble–we are on a dire precipice economically, politically, and internationally, regardless of the spiel they continually pour out with their daily propaganda. We’re not in trouble tomorrow or some Sunday after some Tuesday, we are in trouble now—today. You should also understand that these are not unsolvable problems. They can be solved—all of them; and most of them can be solved in relatively quick order. Our great nation (and it is still great in spite of ourselves) has been around long enough, experienced enough, and studied enough (some of these things have been literally studied to death) that we have the knowledge and the expertise to do it and do it now. Yet, our Congress, the only one with the legal authority under our Constitution, to solve our problems, refuses. They now serve our New King, the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, to whom they sold themselves along with their power. The interests of our New King are not ours. We are diametrically opposed; and, if we the people continue to let these people rule much longer, it will be too late for our democracy. This is being told to you, not only by me; but by many others much more qualified. It’s in the papers, in books, magazines, on television, and on the internet. The information is before you all the time. Sometimes, one must just read between the lines.

What can you do? For one thing, you can get angry. You can get on the backs of our Congress and stay on their backs. Perhaps we need a few more (not just one) million man marches on each of their offices at home as well as in Washington. You can get out and vote. Vote every one of them who do not support our government and our people out of office. I’ll tell you this. If you will do this, there won’t be many of them left. They’re corrupt! They have sold out! Many are unpatriotic! They shouldn’t be in their jobs. We didn’t hire them (that’s what we do when we vote, you know—we hire them. They work for us, or they're supposed to) to get in office and fill their pockets. We hired them to work for our good and that of the nation. We certainly didn’t hire them to sell their power, given to them under the authority of our Constitution, to the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, our New King. That’s why we rebelled in 1776. We threw out the king! And, we should throw out this King. In just four months you will have your chance to do it—to do just that!

I don’t want to tell you for whom you should vote, but I will suggest this to you. Don’t vote for anyone who supports Wall Street and/or the Big Banks. Don’t vote for anyone who supports the Military Industrial Complex—no one. Don’t vote for anyone who supports Big Oil. And, don’t vote for anyone who supports Big Corporations run by Overpaid CEO’s. None of these give a damn for you or for our country. They care only for themselves and their interests. Yes, I’m a little dogmatic; but business, as I have said many times in the past, is supposed to exist for only one purpose and that purpose alone, to serve the public, to provide a product or service. We the people created businesses and they aren’t people regardless of our politicized Supreme Court (That’s not Constitutional either, by the way. SCOTUS is supposed to be politically neutral). We the people also created government to govern us and business. We did not create business to govern us. Any government or business that thinks otherwise will not survive. You better believe it. Just read your history.

By the way, I just finished two books over the Fourth of July Holidays, Beyond Outrage and Aftershock, both written by Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkley. They are highly readable and very informative as to what has happened (been done) to you and to our country over these past years since the last depression—especially since 1980.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net