In my opinion, above all else a new beginning in America requires relearning respect for public employees. Many of us, including me, lashed out at David Moseley, Washington State Department of Transportation’s assistant secretary, and other ferry representatives for what we saw as the dumb and dumber options presented for our ferry service. But in retrospect, many of us — again, including me — were wrong to do so. Whacking the messenger is equivalent to blaming the troops for the mess in Iraq. It’s the Legislature that’s to blame, darn it — those who cannot collectively muster a grand vision, those who applaud whenever Tim Eyman squeaks, those who can’t distinguish between an investment in our future and a waste of money, often using as a reason that the bureaucrats will simply squander the money — a thinly veiled excuse for being greedy, I think, or inaction by those who mean well but are afraid to believe in the future. But I rant!

Moseley is a fine public servant, one of many who, while working tirelessly for the last 25 years, have been trashed and pointed to as “the problem,” a very convenient backdrop for the exploitation we’ve suffered and the form of greed I refer to. This has to end; I heard traces of a desire to repair this damage in President Obama’s inaugural address.

Good government requires good people, and good people need encouragement, not vilification at every turn. Ask any persecuted African-American who lived through Jim Crow who provided the breakout capability that allowed Mr. Obama to ultimately be our president? I believe you will find the ground troops included great government employees who cared to obey and nurture the rule of law and decency.

— Don Munro

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