No, I don't think you should shut up and keep your opinions to yourself. I would like to hear some positive opinions. There is more than one side to the issue.
I know many people who have spent many years, sometimes a lifetime, working in government jobs with not very much pay and little positive recognition from the general public, and yet they have worked hard to do their jobs because they believed in our country and believed that because they were working in their jobs everyday, someone's life was a bit better.
Maybe a child didn't go hungry because a social worker made one last stop even though she had worked more than her 8 hours already--but, there was that one last stop and she made it, and it made all the difference to that one child.
Or perhaps it was the fireman who heard the alarm on his way home, or his day off, and answered it anyway, because that is what he does...
or the young soldier or airman who stayed behind to help his fallen team mate, even though it meant he lost his life-
-or maybe it was the doctor in the ER of the inner city hospital, who despite the fact that he made half of what some of his former medical school classmates who went into private practice did, stayed with his job, because he felt he made a difference to the people with no insurance who had no place else to go for help.
Or maybe it was the foreign service officer in some Godforsaken country who made just one more effort with the local governor to squash an uprising that might have overrun the embassy and threatened the security of everyone there.
Maybe it was the public school teacher who after working in a classroom of 25 second graders, drove from DeFuniak Springs to South Walton to get trained on a special machine that would help one of her disabled students...no, the school can't afford to reimburse her, and her family has a late, cold dinner once again, but the child in her room needs her help to learn to read.
Maybe it's the single mom or dad who works at the post office and then at the local diner and goes to college in between to try make a better life for the children.
Maybe it was the caretaker in the national park who spent one more moment trimming trees, or mowing lawns, or checking on campfires...so that all the tourists could enjoy themselves.
Maybe it was the cop walking the beat who heard screams for help, and although he was alone, and there was no time for backup, he went to the person's aid anyway.
No, I don't want you to keep your opinions to yourself, I just want some recognition from you, and some others on this board that government is not some strange boogie man or woman somewhere in Washington...government is just people like you and me, many of them trying the best they know how to do the job they have chosen or that has chosen them. The examples I give above are not made up from some "dogooder, idealist" attitude some here have accused me of--no, they are people I know and love --some of them family; some of them now gone, but whose legacy lives on...they may have worked for government, but they made a difference.
They are not the enemy--they are good people who work hard and in my opinion do not deserve to be denigrated just because you feel your life is being intruded upon by some policy.
If you have a problem with it, then do something about it--contact your Congressman or woman; put together a campaign to make a difference; come up with a better idea--don't just sit around and complain. If you don't like the policies, then work to change them.
If you don't like the present administration, then do something to affect the policies now; and then work to change it when the election comes around again.
But in the meantime, stop with the negative energy and the generalizations against our government and the people who make it up.
I will defend it. The oaths I took when I worked for our government meant something to me. While I no longer work in that capacity, it is still important to me. Too many people have given too much for our freedom for their efforts to be maligned just because you and others feel as "government" is intruding into your lives. If you have not walked in their shoes, then you have no idea how they feel.
But I don't just defend government--I have found plenty wrong with the way things work--the difference is that I think I have a responsibility to do something about it, and I have many, many times. Perhaps you do too, but what comes across from your posts is different from that. All I am asking is that you step back a bit and ask what can you do to make it better. if we all did our part everyday, things would not be the way they are. And, it seems from what you post about yourself that you could make a positive difference.
The "us against them" attitude is destructive and can lead to no good end. I am sick of hearing all the negative snarling...it is just tearing everyone down. I think it is disgusting the way so many people are attacking President Obama. He is what this country used to be about: a poor person who through his hard work and the hard work of his mother and grandparents, made something of himself...against some of the greatest odds there could be. He is a remarkable role model for all young people and for all young fathers...and yet, so many in this country--take every chance they get to put him down. And, they think it is harming him--there is nothing anyone can say that will harm him; or IMO will change him He has already made it through his obstacle path--he knows who he is and he stands on those principles. I don't agree with all he says or does, but I admire him for having the courage to say and do it. And, I do believe that he wants what is best for the country.
As you said on another post, the petty needs to go.
People's lives are more important than intrusions on someone's comfort, IMO.
