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By Rev. Preston K. Mears Jr.
June 4, 2006
Last week I received a form, an SF 50 for you federal government
types, informing me that I had qualified for a step increase to the
7 level based on my years in grade and having performed at a
satisfactory level or better. That is a good thing to get as it is a
kind of approval and it does mean a “step-up” in salary. It will
help us pay our pledge, a good thing. There were two things that
struck me about the form: First: Wow, I have been working in the
public service arena for 40 years.
Forty years, it is pause for thought especially when the arithmetic
gets challenging! I was ordained deacon in June of 1966 having just
graduated from seminary. I started as a Curate in an Episcopal
Church, did that for 4 years, and then was Rector of a New Hampshire
Church for four years, then took my ministry directly into the
social/welfare arena and worked for 10 years as a New Hampshire
welfare supervisor, and then went to the Food and Nutrition Service
in the Northeast Region for ten years and then, in 1994 moved here
and have been working in the Agency Headquarters in the Benefit
Redemption Division of the Food Stamp Program these 12 years.
So, I kept looking at the form and double checking the numbers in my
head, “Yes, it really has been forty years.” I could kind of get
nostalgic about it all, it has been quite a trip. And then the
second thing that struck me about the form: I noticed the signature
block of the SF 50’s: “Director, Human Capital Services.” And then I
was angry. I have not been, am not , and will not be an “asset.” I
am not a liquid asset to be invested here and disposed there, I am
not equipment, I am not a building nor a vehicle or a major
computer. Last I knew, I am a human being with values and
commitments that transcend any conclusions to be found at the bottom
of a spread sheet. I have my commitments, values, dearly earned
skills and knowledge, my “KSA’s--Knowledge, Skills and Abilities.
However, I am not an object to be placed on an auction block and bid
upon or contracted in or out.
The language we use is important and the metaphors that are chosen
speak volumes. However the symbolic and metaphoric nature of human
language is such that a great deal of its content operates at
sub-conscious levels We don’t go around typically and ask ourselves,
“What are the epistimoligical roots of this statement.” Once and a
while we stop and think about our words as when we have worked on
our out reach publicity or the “Many Hearts” campaign. And it right
that we do. Our ADORE dialogue leader, Paula Jones Cole frequently
states, “Language matters.”
I believe the traditional term for what is, at least in USDA, “Human
Capital Management,” has been “Personnel” which began to be replaced
with “Human Resources.” I thought “Personnel” was fine since the
“Personnel Department” dealt with people. “Human Resources” isn’t so
bad since “Resources” used in a metaphoric way conjures a wide range
of realities: environmental, organic, intellectual as well as
economic and physical. “Human Capital” is taking the word capital
and the word functions as a symbolic expression that conjures up
what? I suppose if you’re an architect your mind’s eye would see the
capstone piece on top of a column.
For most of us, the image is primarily money. which is nothing more
or less than terms for the exchange of goods and services. Three
hundred years ago, at last week’s congregational meeting, we would
have voted on how many pounds of tobacco, the Rev. John Crestwell
needed for his compensation! How much is needed for food and shelter
and support of the church? (We call it a budget). How much can be
set aside towards more land? (We call that “capital planning”) What
about providing a cushion against hard times or retirement? (We call
that “long term capital planning). It is important that we do these
things. And, John, you can see that planning is important and you
don’t want to smoke up all of you compensation at once.
So, if capital is terms of exchange for goods and services, why is
that so bad as a metaphor for “Public Service?” Capital is simply a
means to an end and human beings are not a simply a “means” to an
end. We are an “end” in and of ourselves. We humans are ends in and
of ourselves. It is the under-girding, fundamental truth I learned
from my family and the little Episcopal Church I was raised in. It
is a truth that more than anything else moved me to go into ministry
and to be able to articulate and proclaim. It may well be the
Unitarian principle more than any other one that has drawn many of
you to this church--something about, “…the inherent dignity and
worth of every human being.” I believe our Dr. Chris Bell has spoken
about the importance of this principle not too long ago from this
pulpit.
It is not coincidental that the use of a limiting metaphor, “Human
Capital,” comes at a time when “public service” is put up on the
auction block so that the spread sheets bottom line becomes the all
defining delimiter--its called “outsourcing” and “contracting out.”
What can be a good strategies in some situations, these have been
piously and sanctimoniously invoked across the Board and presumed to
fix everything. And when things don’t work as they should, the blame
is shuffled off onto, “The Bureaucracy”--that which is faceless,
nameless, and can be lumped with those nameless things in our
childhood brain that “…go bump in the night.”
I am in public service and I have a name and I have a face. Last
month, because of the Food Stamp Program work that I do, I
participated in a National Meeting of State and Federal and some
private industry people involved with the program. We reviewed our
Food Stamp Program response in the aftermath of the last year’s
hurricanes, Katrina, Rita and Wilma. I can put names and faces to
over a hundred people who made things work. I am here to tell you
that those people went the distance and beyond. They are of great
value because they are all human beings, an “end” in and of
themselves, just as are you and I, our children and our grand
children.
For the record, by the way, I want to challenge the research
oriented among us to find me a single, credible post contracting out
study identifying the cost efficiency and effectiveness of
contracting out. And when you can’t, stop and think about it and
don’t be surprised when you don’t find it. Public service folk are
human beings; contract folk our human beings. For good or for ill,
there is the human factor. Also, the bottom line, dollar value is
relevant to be sure (we sure struggle with our budget!), but it is
prone to distortion in the context of short term outlooks unbalanced
by the lack of larger values and the emphasis on instant
gratification in our culture. The recent conviction of the Enron
executives and the multi million fines against Fannie Mae for
accounting fraud illustrate the potential distortion from focusing
on dollars alone. Values and the symbols and metaphors that express
those values are important, and “public service” is a value I
celebrate and hold up before you today.
I am not the only public servant here, Laurie is a school teacher,
there are others here who are teachers and have or are working in
education. Les Greenberg, a printer by trade, has plied his trade as
a public servant. He retired and now plies his trade as a contracted
instructor and is better compensated. There is some irony in that
the current administration is attempting to save money by
encouraging early retirement in order to cut back on staffing costs
but is then having to contract those same people because the skills
and knowledge are badly needed. By the way, Les, the person in my
Agency who took one of your courses, said you were a most excellent
instructor. Les, also like me, you are married to an educator! Bless
you both for your public service!
Public service in all of its forms and expressions and contexts is a
great calling. Over the years, I have gotten to be able to develop
and hone a combination of people and organizational skills and put
them to work to in the social/welfare arena so that needful people
in our society are treated as human beings with “…inherent worth and
dignity.” Laurie has developed and honed her skills and
understandings of young children and put them to work to nurture and
help children to know and appreciate their “inherent worth and
dignity.” We are most fortunate to have worked, and for that matter,
continue to do work we value and look forward to each day. We are
most fortunate.
The passage from the New Testament (Mathew 20: 1 - 16), one that I
find helpful, is actually a very Jewish, Rabinnical teaching story.
As you remember the Master hires laborers for the day for the going
daily living wage of the day. The Master goes out at mid-day and
hires some more laborers, apparently having more work to do than was
being completed by the first group of laborers. All well and fine.
Then in the late afternoon he goes out again, sees some laborers
standing around and asks them what’s happening and they tell the
Master that there is no one to give them work. So the Master then
hires them. At the end, and this stirs up some controversy, the
Master pays them all the same living wage. The Master shuts the
controversy off with a “I am the Master” kind of line that really
turns off Unitarians, and then the cryptic line, “The first shall be
last and the last shall be first.”
A capitalist would have to say, “That is no way to run a business.”
I must concede, though, that a thoughtful, insightful capitalist
might think in terms of building up a motivated work force for the
long haul. A socialist would say that the story proves that every
one needs to be provided a daily, living stipend. A unionist, and I
sign on here, would say, every one should have work and be paid a
living wage. There is a certain freedom of spirit and dignity that
comes with being able to provide for our own basic survival. At the
end of the week, generally on a Friday night, Laurie and I do our
main weekly shopping. It never fails to feel very gratifying, a
fulfilled kind feeling, at the end of our work week, to put away our
groceries and have in place the food we shall eat the following
week. Is there anyone here for whom that isn’t true? To me the
freedom, the right to have the opportunity and ability to provide
for basic needs “affirms our inherent worth and dignity.” It is an
understanding that needs to be remembered in the controversy and
debate regarding immigrants. Look around among ourselves. Who is
first and who is last in this place here at Davies Memorial
Unitarian Universalist Church? Not Preston, not John, but maybe
Zephyr, maybe Lily and Asher, our youngest ones and maybe our oldest
and most frail. Who would we have be first? Perhaps all of us?
A thought for those of you who have had your curiosity tweaked by
the DaVinci code regarding early church history: This first and last
passages is one of those anti-authoritarian passages that calls into
question the authority of the powers to be whether due to position
in the church, economic privilege or established Jewish lineage. The
uncomfortableness of the text in context adds to its authenticity.
For me, front and center, is the fundamental affirmation and
importance of our being able to work and be self sustaining. But
what it does not have, and what I have trouble finding in very many
places, is the affirmation that we all have gifts that we should be
able to develop and put to work. There are times and ways in which
we need to do what we need to do in order to “make a living.” That
won’t always and everywhere be what or as we want it. But, over the
long haul, let it be that we choose to do what is important from
among our gifts to do! There will be changes to be sure. I turn 66
this month and in a few years, I will need to make some changes to
the work I do. Perhaps someday, I will have learned enough for my
job to be a wise old man in our scheme of things. In our class this
last winter on Lessons on Life and Loss, one attendee spoke of the
loss of relevance that came with wage. It was poignant to hear. A
reality for the rest of us in the class was that what this person
shared out a life of experience was totally relevant, helpful and
meaningful.
Laurie tells me that for young children, their play is their work.
That is how they grow and learn—and that is their job. And maybe
there is an attitude in that we shouldn’t give up. Developing and
plying our skills should be a thing of joy. We need to find them in
ourselves, we need to apply them in ever evolving ways as time and
circumstance allow or give opportunity. We need to support and
encourage them in each other, we need to model the value of the
inherent worth and dignity of people to our children and nurture and
encourage their development.
In point of fact, we are doing just that. We have artists, we have
workers and professionals of all sorts in our midst, we have public
servants. I hold you all up. One of the things we are also doing, is
putting a lot of ourselves, including capital, but more importantly,
our time and energy into our religious education—building up in our
children and youth the experience and knowledge of their own and
each other’s worth and dignity. Part of my work these days is to
encourage young co-workers to stay the course, that public service
is a noble calling and don’t be defined by the current crop of
political ideologues and cynics.
In the responsive readings, there is phrase, a concept that is
meaningful to me. It is the idea that our work is our worship.
Worship is ascribing worth to that which we worship. To worship, to
be a creature that worships the creator, is to value our gifts and
to employ them in our life’s work. That is our true worship. Sunday
morning is the window dressing.
So what is your work? My brother is an engineer and teacher, my
sister is an artist and an arts education activist. Me, I am the
middle child whose verve is to bring together the knowledge and
creative energies of others to accomplish important goals. Sometimes
that can involve a little coaching and coaxing, call it preaching. I
thank you for allowing me the opportunity to exercise my gifts among
you and to indulge in some self-recognition, “Wow, 40 years of
public service.” Thank you, thank you, thank you. And, oh yea,
“Human Capital Managers” got it wrong and they can’t take it away
from us.
AMEN
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