Public servants needed
In these challenging times, it’s important to teach children about civics, especially the rule of law.
For example, decades of peaceful protests and lobbying resulting in civil rights legislation seem part of a different world in contrast to police officers denied justice for those who attacked them on Jan. 6, 2021, and the criminals just a few weeks ago are pardoned wholesale.
We’ve had ugly challenges before.
My father, a combat veteran of World War II, was required to sign a loyalty oath during the McCarthy era of the 1950s in order to get a job. As if by fighting in the war and getting wounded in battle wasn’t enough to prove loyalty to our country.
The lessons of the past matter, and we should learn from them instead of pretending they didn’t happen and don’t matter.
The past is full of such efforts to marginalize and diminish people and public service, but I won’t discount the heightened in-your-face atmosphere of early 2025.
Let’s recognize the challenges facing our teachers, law enforcers, national parks staff, all of our public servants and working people.
Let’s encourage them to hang in there because we value them and the work they do.
We need them.
Barry Burnett
Port Angeles