Reacting to the latest round of depressing jobs numbers, the president said that it is just like "if you got hit by a truck, it's going to take a while for you to mend." Being hit by a truck is not a bad metaphor -- but he left something out. If you get hit by a truck, you are taken to a hospital for major interventions. When you are wheeled through the emergency room doors on a gurney, people react; they move purposefully and quickly; machines are brought out; desperate measures are taken. But that's not at all what happened with the economy. Instead, the economy got hit by a truck, was wheeled into the ER, and those in charge largely left the patient to heal on his own while they went into a back room to talk about the long-term building plan for the hospital. You know what might help speed along the mending? Surgery.
I could not agree more. We have been fiddling while our governmental institutions are collapsing around us (remember Nero)?
While I believe that Governor Brown is attempting to do something on the state level -- most of these changes are minor -- reign in cell phones, collect past travel and salary advances (if the employees are still working) hold the line on hiring, and consolidate DPA and SPB. While all of these are good, we need a much more drastic approach to fixing the total dysfunction inside most governmental organizations. We need to surgically remove the malignancy that has been eating away at these structures of government for the past decade.
It is the cancerous leadership which has metastasized within the structures of many departments. This has allowed for patronage hires; the total disregard for established rules or policies; the lack of accountability for those that have committed fraud or have serious conflicts of interest -- or serious ethics violations and major self-dealing. No one is accountable for anything anymore -- it is truly stunning to me as I spent so much of my adult life working in government and being accountable.
Adriana Huffington is right -- WE NEED SURGERY!
Adriana Huffington is right -- WE NEED SURGERY!
2 comments:
Thank you, Jackie! Your comments have been so on target. The blogs from the past two weeks have been especially validating.
So Jackie, you need to take this to the next step; there needs to be a surgical team that is well qualified, and a patient who wants to be healed.
Who, how, and when should it happen?
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