Eh, I was just pissed off last night after listening to the debate, and not hearing much of anything from either candidate that would make many of the very disenfranchised folks I work with feel compelled to register and vote. (Strictly speaking, I haven't been a public servant myself for 3 years, since the travesty of the privatization of public mental health in North Carolina. Much to the dismay of my assorted new bosses, however, I continue to consider my mission to serve those in need of publicly funded mental health services, and not to make enough profit so the company CEO can continue to vacation in the Bahamas. He doesn't "get" why those few of us old timers still around are unmoved by financial bonuses for "productivity" (read quantity vs. quality.)

I haven't heard anything to suggest there will be new policies coming down the pike that will significantly restore the social safety net for seriously impaired people, or for people who need a hand up to get back on their feet and productive. With the economic crisis and it's likely long-term implications for tax revenues, there will be less public funds, not more. Nor I am hearing anything that convinces me the privatization of services that need to be administered and provided by the public sector will come to a screeching halt, much less reverse itself.

Help for the working poor may increase. But what about the legions of seriously damaged folks that can not work? (I know I have a skewed perspective from working so many years with this particular population, but it is what it is.)

After 35 years in the public sector, I am sick to death of hearing politicians talk about "efficiencies" without providing the tools to allow efficiency. I am especially sick of them not getting the inherent tension between the incredible amount of beaurocratic paper and regulation needed to prove accountability to the tax payer, and productivity.

I'm tired of the exponential increase in beuarocratic paperwork since the implementation of the first "Paperwork Reduction Act," some of it generated to satisfy the demands of the Act.

What most disturbs me, however, is what I observe about younger service providers just beginning their professional careers. They do not see themselves as public servants.

I'm tired of being tiresomely cynical about the effectiveness of the political process, and so am on a little venting rant.

I'm just jealous of all you hopeful people.

Janie