An Open Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

Though I didn’t vote for you in the last election, currently I am grateful that you are our president, not because I agree with you so much but rather because I still feel – rightly or wrongly – that you mean what you say. It is rare to feel like you want to trust a politician but you engender that desire in me and I am grateful for it. Though I have to tell you that my trust is being challenged recently.

You won the Presidency because of your pragmatism. You won because politics is clearly broken and in you, we the people found a reason to believe that those same politics could be put back together again. Recently, for good reason (Your secret deal with Pharma for instance) that belief has been tested. You may not change the political landscape. Maybe you’ve given up. Maybe you never meant what you said.

You need to know that it is that realization that you aren’t delivering on the hope of change you offered that has shattered American’s belief in health reform. Government is broken and not just on the Federal level. Most of us simply don’t trust government at all. Let me try to explain…

I work for the government. I am privileged to drive a special needs school bus for Portland Public Schools. It may not be the most glamorous job, but I am paid to love and care for some of the most vulnerable and needy members of our society (well kind of paid – if you average my wages over the course of a year I make less than someone working full time at minimum wage). There are worse positions in which one could find themselves. Having said that, during my tenure at PPS at least three snapshots illustrate why people don’t trust government to manage their health care.

1.         My first year on the job one of our managers stated, “I’ve remade the wheel at least thirteen times. It is job security.” Advancement inour division seems to be made not on the basis of achievement but upon who is least likely to upset the apple cart; who will simply be a good soldier and allow everyone to be comfortable.
2.         In Portland special needs students are often transported from a block away from their neighborhood school across town to another school for no really good reason other than it is the “system” PPS has created.  Routes crisscross each other and are thrown together “willy nilly,” as if someone drew them randomly out of a hat. Busses travel needless miles because the system doesn’t demand efficiency and even works against it. We serve a broken system and the system is served by us rather than the system serving us. Bosses are more interested in the status quo than making things better. Government managers find it much easier to manage than to lead, and are unwilling or unable to lead effectively.
3.             In my small division of PPS we have ten administrators. The joke among the drivers is that the assistant director’s only job description is to mislead drivers and give us false hope, and attend meetings that everyone else managed to get out of. At the very least four administrators in our division are unnecessary. Meanwhile, while we all gag, our director announces that we are already running on a skeleton budget. It simply isn’t true.

        Mr. Obama, given these realities, why would anyone trust government with healthcare? It is a shame, because I believe that a single payer system is the only way to go, but as a group, we who work for the government are failing the people we are paid to serve. We haven’t earned the trust of the people. They have no reason to trust us with healthcare. Before you can embark on changing the private sector, you must re-invent the public sector and at this you are proving woefully inadequate. Secret meetings held after you promised transparency tend to dismantle trust. Broken local school systems destroy trust. 

        I supported Bush until I couldn’t deny his lies any more. Then I turned on him with venom  and anger. I don’t want to do the same with you. Change the public culture. If you continue on the path you are currently walking you will prove no better than he, and America can’t handle a repeat of his reign. We need healthcare reform and we won’t get there until you fix what is already broken.

Comments

[Steve Ganz]

I wonder if he'll read it?