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NFC: political debates....my turn to rant


All right, guys.  I've bit my tongue as long as I can.  So you don't like 
the way our government works...I can't say I like a lot of things about it 
either, but frankly I haven't been able to come up with a better plan THAT 
IS DOABLE. I spent most of junior high, high school, and a good chunk of 
college dreaming (and working my rear off towards) of becoming a politician 
so I could fix all the things I felt were horribly wrong with our system.  I 
wanted to die as the first female chief justice of the US Supreme Court.  I 
finally realized that our system is based on inertia...there are so many 
people out there with radically different opinions there is absolutely, 
positively no way to please everyone.  Knowing that, our system was designed 
so that we could never slide to far to any extreme (re-read the Federalist 
papers sometime, interesting stuff).  The hard-line environmentalists want 
to protect everything and totally lock humans out.  The hard-core 
capitalists want every regulation based entirely on profit.  Most folks fall 
somewhere in between.  Some places are going to fall more to one side, 
others more to the opposite side.  In the end we average out.  You don't 
like it? go run for office...or do a Timothy if you're a real wacko.

I work for the federal government...the United States Fish and Wildlife 
Service to be precise.  I can tell you that I work my butt off every single 
day.  Most of my co-workers and I are in here before hours, after hours, and 
weekends.  I don't remember the last time I took a lunch break.  We don't 
get paid for any of those extra hours.  We could make three times as much in 
private sector for half the work--I know, I've had offers.  We do this 
because we want it done right and believe in what we're doing.  We 
constantly battle stupid, useless rules and regulations shoved down our 
throat by Congress.  We waste way too much time doing mandatory paperwork.  
We get our budget slashed constantly...especially with the new 
administration.  Our chiefs are political appointees who often put gag 
orders on us regularly so we can't call them idiots.  Yes, there are 
certainly horrible, stupid, lazy individuals working for any agency.  Unlike 
private business, it is nearly impossible for a federal agency to fire 
someone for incompetence--especially if they are minority, veterans, or 
disabled.  But most of us work damn hard to do the absolute best job we can. 
  We get hammered from all sides--environmentalists say we don't do enough, 
developers say we're too radical, the politicians blame us for everything 
that goes wrong and take credit for everything that goes right, the 
landowners either love us or loathe us.  And everyone thinks we're someone 
else's lapdog.

Are we perfect?  No.  But neither are you.  And we do the best damn job we 
can.  You think you can do better?  Come work here and show me.

Kristine W. Massin
(getting very sick of being everyone's whipping post)
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