I'm not re-upping for the next portion of the Census.
I've never worked for a government agency before, and never will again.
No, this isn't about ACORN, that was a load of bull anyway, they were only hired to go out in the community and encourage people to fill out and return their surveys. All enumerators were/are hired by the bureau directly.
This isn't about the incompetence of those before me that I've encountered either, though I've learned that quality control is NOT my calling in life.
This isn't about the backgrounds checks that were messed up that resulted in felons working for the bureau either (though that does explain why I had to re-do my fingerprint cards and clearance).
This isn't even about feeling like the Census is an unnecessary invasion of privacy, because I don't. I've wracked my brain trying to figure out how to run a representative republic without an accurate census (you can't) and how to conduct one without invading privacy and yet prevent fraud (it's not possible).
No. This isn't about my perception of these problems.
This is about how the average person perceives these problems.
If you ever want to know how little trust in and regard for the federal government the average person has, put on a government i.d. and knock on doors. Seriously.
In the past few weeks I've been sworn at, openly derided, and questioned within an inch of my life. I haven't been attacked, but one co-worker walked onto a property (fence-less, no warning signs) only to have a door opened and large dogs sent after him.
Seriously.
Now before you say, "but that's what you get for walking onto private property and knocking on the doors of private homes" we weren't. That wasn't the mission.
We were knocking on the doors of businesses, most of them open to the public.
Nursing homes. Hospitals. Hotels. Places of business. NOT private homes.
And we were already getting this treatment.
Whatever goodwill the average person had for the organization that actually performs a CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED FUNCTION is completely gone.
I wonder how the average person feels about OTHER functions of the government. I don't really want to find out, at least not while wearing a federal i.d.
This certainly isn't worth the pay, and I'm not doing it again.
I had a disturbing thought: If this sort of stuff forces me out, what kind of people stay, and how much worse do they end up making the problem?
I'll tell you what though. Those people who keep saying a revolution is on the horizon, that the American people are a breath away from long lengths of rope and tall oak trees?
I'm starting to believe them.
Mel
