Attraction of Careers in Public Service

Joe Rodota’s “Bah Humbug to Public Service” (Column Right, Aug. 20) reveals the true and undisguised object of fear for the Wilson administration, Rodota’s boss: the public.

Those of us who have performed it know what the source of “public service” is: communities banding together, organizing politically, to solve community problems. Rodota characterizes public service as “big government” because he’s afraid of what a politically organized public would do to his boss, and so he recommends to young people that they choose a career “making movies or writing software” over public service.

Rodota’s political enemies for this year are candidates such as Ralph Nader, who would run campaigns entirely for the purpose of promoting the idea of civic life.

SAMUEL DAY FASSBINDER

Claremont

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* Rodota portrays a government career as a slow climb, “pushing paper” from the typing pool to the front office. He celebrates the young men and women of today choosing the challenges of the private sector over the passionless dead end of government service. Rodota fails to mention the doctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters, lifeguards, occupational and physical therapists and engineers who are government employees wholeheartedly serving their communities and the high number of applicants who aspire to fill the few vacancies that occur for these jobs.

Rodota speaks from an either/or world. He praises one government servant, state Department of Social Services Director Eloise Anderson, as an “outspoken” revolutionary. He denigrates a second public servant, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, as a “liberal” who delays welfare reform. He portrays the public sector as grim and the private sector as shiny bright.

Is it possible we live in a both/and world where Anderson and Shalala serve a purpose in creating a welfare system that works? Is it possible that the private and public sectors are also a happy partnership where participants fulfill their potential while producing improved products and services?

HOWARD M. PHILLIPS

Los Angeles