I am the Enemy: A Unionized Public Employee Speaks Back
Education, PoliticsFeb 24, 2011I Am The Enemy
By Michael I. Niman
ArtVoice (etc.) 2/24/11
If you listen to any Wall Street banker, right-wing talk radio host, or Republican politician, I am the enemy. I am a public employee. Along with snow plow operators in Wisconsin, meat inspectors in Iowa, welfare fraud investigators in California, transit workers in Chicago, life guards in Florida, air traffic controllers in Kansas, workplace safety inspectors in Kentucky, child abuse investigators in Oregon, teachers in North Carolina, highway engineers in Pennsylvania, park rangers in New York, and every other civil servant who doesn’t commute to work in an armored personnel carrier, I am responsible for the downfall of Western civilization.
My first job after leaving college was doing public relations work for a not-for-profit human services agency. The pay was low for a PR wonk, barely lifting me above the poverty line, but the work was rewarding. I’d like to think that the work I performed for my employer made the world a better place to live, at least for those folks who relied on our services to make it through the day, for their families, for their neighbors, and for the businesses that