[LJ Idol 10: Week 9] Do I support this?

[cheshire23]

One of the most frustrating things for me to watch as our most recent major political campaigns unfolded, and something that has frustrated me before, is the continual accusation that being unable to stop a particular bad thing from happening means that the candidate somehow etiher wanted that thing to happen, or at the very least didn't care too

Comments

[tonithegreat]

Oh my gosh, a thousand times this! The work that agencies do is anything but simple and sound-bite-able, but compelling half truths are simple and sound-bite-able and so here we are, stuck and hurting. I feel you on this.

[cheshire23]

Thanks, it's kind of a relief to know that this is relate-able.

[j0ydivided]

Oh, lord. I'm dealing with this myself, to some extent, right now, because I've chosen to take the opportunity to change things from within the system where I work versus trying to tear everything down. People want things that will look good on paper; they don't care about the realities of change.

[cheshire23]

Yep. And especially with closing programs. Because there are people IN the programs and sometimes "no replacement program" is not a viable solution for one reason or another, so "JUST CLOSE IT!" doesn't work?

[eternal_ot]

You gave me a new perspective and thank you for writing this. A great take on the prompt too.

[cheshire23]

Thanks, glad to hear it.

[my_name_is_jenn]

It's easy for outsiders to pick little soundbites from one aspect of what you do and use it in an attempt to slander you or otherwise put you down.

Yes, had you left, all you would have done was put yourself out of a job. Just because you work at/for A Company doesn't mean you support everything about A Company. Besides, some of the best ways to change what A Company does is to make the changes from within.

[cheshire23]

Yes, and I didn't get into how some of my feelings about specific aspects of my work changed while I was in the job, because that's an entire OTHER can of worms...

[alycewilson]

Thanks for this insight into the reality of government agencies. I wonder how many people are currently experiencing such dilemmas, wanting to continue to serve but being forced to tacitly support actions with which they disagree?

[cheshire23]

Part of the reason change moves slowly is so someone can't just come in and wrecking-ball before "...and replace this with what, now?" has at least something resembling a satisfactory answer.

I was endlessly frustrated that we couldn't get the Raise the Age bill through and implemented, because the whole "charge ALL sixteen and seventeen year olds as adults" thing is SUCH bad public policy on SO many levels. And yet. The layers of changes that you don't think about that would have to happen to address this one issue...more Family Court judges, more capacity in the juvenile justice system which has different rules about things like staffing ratios from the ones that exist in the adult corrections system, etc.