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On Local Government
by Bob Pinzler
The price of public service
It is amazing how the attitudes of people toward public service have changed since September 11. Last week, Congresswoman Jane Harman held a community forum on bioterrorism and its potential impact on our communities. One of her panelists indicated that most of the people in the room had a miniscule possibility of being directly affected by the ongoing anthrax situation. However, the people that he did point out as being potential targets were the elected officials and civil servants.
The public side of public service often makes it seem like it an easy life of regular hours and good pensions. However, as we have come to see in the last six weeks, those in public service are often, inadvertently, in harm’s way. Police and fire personnel expect to find themselves in dangerous positions. In part, that’s what they signed up for. We try our best to give them the most advanced training and equipment to give them the greatest advantage over danger. And, we respect their willingness to do the kind of work they do.
I don’t think the staffers for Senator Daschle (D-South Dakota) thought they were front line soldiers. Nor did the postal workers who worked in Trenton, NJ, or Washington, DC. But they have been made so in a war for which the rules are only now being written. Now, city council members, governors, state legislators, congresspeople, senators, their staffs and those who live with them are potential targets.
I received threats through the mail during my terms on the Redondo Beach City Council. Other colleagues I know around California have as well. These were during more "benign" periods when the only venom was in the words on the paper they sent. Often, the threat could be easily ignored. None, thankfully, ever constituted more than a bad reading experience.
Now, we have the deaths of two postal workers in Washington, DC. It is a very different, more uncertain and more dangerous world. And public servants (as well as other very public people, such as news anchors) are the likeliest recipients of the "ammunition" of our new war.
No one knows for sure where the anthrax came from, nor is there any surety that the person or persons who did this have anything to do with Al Qaeda or any foreign entity. After all, Oklahoma City has taught us that some of our own are capable of terrible acts. Nevertheless, the front line of this aspect of the war on terrorism is the public servants so often ridiculed or demeaned in the past.
My guess is, the term, "Going Postal" is going to be put away, hopefully forever. ER