Thursday, March 15, 2007
Someone Else's Convenience
How often in life do we do things for the convenience of other people? I was thinking about this in relation to my youngest son. He has a scattered organizational sense and teachers are forever trying to get him to remember to bring things home for us to sign. Ostensibly, they are trying to teach him how to be responsible and organized, but really, it's more for their convenience in that this is the organization that they prefer. My son has one teacher whose organizational style matches his. This teacher requires that all handouts stay in a folder in the science room; nothing goes home with the kids. This works extremely well for our son. No bothersome papers to remember.
Thinking about this topic reminds me of a phrase I've heard many times the last few days - "U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President." Barring the vaguely sexual connotations of this phrase, in essence what the White House is saying - and most often they are saying it in order to convince us that they did nothing wrong in firing U.S. Attorneys for political reasons - is that U.S. Attorneys are there for the President's convenience. Frankly, I didn't give U.S. Attorneys much thought until this, but it seems to me that they are actually supposed to be serving for the convenience of the U.S. public. I guess it's my bad for making the assumption that our government should be serving us.
So, given those two examples, whose convenience do you serve? Is a service you chose? Is it a service you enjoy?
Thinking about this topic reminds me of a phrase I've heard many times the last few days - "U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President." Barring the vaguely sexual connotations of this phrase, in essence what the White House is saying - and most often they are saying it in order to convince us that they did nothing wrong in firing U.S. Attorneys for political reasons - is that U.S. Attorneys are there for the President's convenience. Frankly, I didn't give U.S. Attorneys much thought until this, but it seems to me that they are actually supposed to be serving for the convenience of the U.S. public. I guess it's my bad for making the assumption that our government should be serving us.
So, given those two examples, whose convenience do you serve? Is a service you chose? Is it a service you enjoy?
Labels: convenience, organization, president, school, service, son, u.s. attorneys, white house
