My Tribute to Public Servants

Oprah says she would consider running for president.  Deep sigh. A public servant, let alone the highest rank of public servant in America, as you know is not for the faint-hearted.

We now know what happens if one has never had to weigh options that have an impact on the entire globe.

We now know what happens when private citizens with no public service are required to make those difficult decisions and then stand and defend those decisions.

We now understand that things done as a public servant become talking points in history, in the story of an entire sovereign state for all time immemorial.

We now know what happens when someone who has never been a steward of public resources has to make choices that call into question their principles.

We now know what happens when someone is unwilling to sacrifice short-term goals for the long-term gains.

We now know what it looks like when someone inexperienced becomes an unprincipled public servant and denigrates those who have dedicated their lives to the profession, calling past and current civil servants derogatory names, belittling their exemplary service, in the face of evidence to the contrary.

The role, the duty, the vocational trajectory of the civil servant, is a role that by definition leads by serving, bringing civility to the citizenry.  But those who are unprepared for it are alarmingly polarizing and demonstratively damaging.  We now know the twin ills of inexperience and a habit of self-interest can block all good, altogether.

Though being president is, among other things, similar to being the parent and head of household for over 300,000,000 people, we now know that an untrained elected television personality may well assume that success consists merely of behaving like the most talked about and petulant reality television star in the land.  To a hammer, all problems are nails.

We now know that we as a country deserve better.  So if you want to serve, by all means, serve, because we need more people who are willing to make sacrifices for this thankless calling.  But please don't do it without actually seeing if you are good at it.  Please prepare yourself to take the strain of it, the overwhelming day-after-day stresses of it, because by definition it's shot-through with anguish punctuated, depressingly, with infrequent moments of triumph, not only for yourself but for the people you are serving.

And please, if you want to lead, why not don't start at the top. Start lower and see if you are suited for the job.

For your sake and for ours, if you want to go for it, do...but go for it eyes very wide open.