Dedicated Public Servants – Defending against all threats, foreign and domestic

A teacher asked his students, what is worse, 'ignorance and apathy?' A student responded, "I don't know and I don't care."

 I attended the Kansas City Digi.City Connects conference that had speakers from local lawmakers and experts about the policy implications of smart city technologies.  

https://www.digi.city/events-1/https/wwweventbritecom/e/smart-metro-summit-tickets-42386679700affeac2

 I especially liked the Regional CIO Panel with Alan Howze (Kansas City, KS), Vicki Irey (Overland Park), and Shawn Whitcomb (Olathe). One comment that got my attention was the need to help citizens with their problems even if it was not part of their department - rather than just saying, "it is not my responsibility" and telling the person to go away. The panel encourage the group to help the citizen find the department that can solve the problem. This is what a dedicated public servant would do.

Last month “A teacher is accused of calling military 'lowest of our low'”

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/us/teacher-under-investigation-ad-trnd/index.html

 He made the following statements (in the video):

 "They are not high-level bankers, they are not academic people, they are not intellectual people," the voice in the video says. "They are the lowest of our low."

 "We couldn't beat the Vietnamese, they are a bunch of people this big throwing rice at us, and we couldn't beat them."

These statements have made me think what it means to be a Dedicated Public Servant. If I was in the class, this would be my response to this teacher:

The USA (or any country) faces threats, both foreign and domestic. I am grateful that dedicated and honorable public servants: people in the military, first responders, teachers, healthcare professionals and government workers have dedicated their lives, their fortunes, even their sacred honor to defend against these threats.  Those who give their lives (and their free time) that we may live in a nation of peace, security and freedom - even freedom of speech.  

I am grateful that “smart people” and even the “not so smart people” choose not to just pursue money but pursue a life of dedication to service.  We are “beat” from threats not because we are not smart but because we are not dedicated to the task that is before us. I would rather have a “not so smart” person working on a problem that is dedicated than someone who thinks they know it all but gives up when the work becomes hard.  

 As JFK said "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

 With examples of dedicated public servant’s full measure of devotion to solving difficult problems – I would hope that we here would be highly resolve that these public servants should not have worked - and in some cases died - in vain. 

I would encourage this teacher to read the following books:

Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith

Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future by Ian Morris

These books highlight the need for dedicated and honorable public servants to face the challenges we have in the world. I personally believe that if Eisenhower was not president during the 1950s, WWIII may have taken place.

If you are interested, more on the topic of Intelligence, see this blog:

Are You Smarter than your Grandparents? Intelligence X - Intelligence Augmentation IA- Collaborated

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