While I’m away for a short vacation, we asked some readers to come up with guest columns. This one first appeared in 2015, but it shows that nothing changes.  The author is Marc Beskin, a National Treasury Employees Union chapter president. He says things were often bad for feds in the good-old-days, but that back then, feds didn’t have to disguise where they worked:

“Are you now or have you ever been” is a familiar phrase to many of us old timers who have either studied history or actually lived through those harrowing times when “tail gunner” Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-Wis.)  and the House Un-American Activities Committee were carrying out their witch hunts for subversive communists on the American public. Countless numbers of citizens — some famous , some infamous — celebrities, actors, filmmakers, authors, musicians, reporters, politicos and plain-old folks were singled out and ostracized on mostly trumped-up charges.  Many people lost their jobs and fortunes and threats of imprisonment abounded as paranoia ruled the land. (For an entertaining depiction of that time, check out the film “The Front” with Woody Allen).

We’ve seen better times in the hallowed halls of Congress, but apparently some habits are difficult to break. Not that I am even suggesting that we compare those days of horror to our current situation, but am I the only one to be thinking that Congress seems to perpetually be in need of a scapegoat or sacrificial lamb as an attention diversion tactic?

Come on now, be honest. Am I the only federal employee to, on more than one occasion, deny the identity of my employer? That is a rhetorical question, of course. I know of several others who have been floating in the same boat, so to speak. You know who you are and stop sweating, my lips are sealed (well, there may be a small leak in them).

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[Full disclosure statement:  I have been a revenue officer with the IRS for over 30 years, but am now a full-time NTEU chapter president. That’s a double whammy as far as many folks sitting in Congress are concerned.  I can feel the pins hitting the voodoo doll already.]

There have been many times in the past when I have responded to the inquiry, “What do you do?” with “I collect taxes for the IRS.” There have been varied responses to that — usually curiosity, but hardly hostility. (Except for that time on the river cruise when the young man who asked the question virtually froze up and his smile converted into a grimacing look of horror worthy of a vampire caught in the first rays of sunlight. I remember staying close to the stash of life vests the rest of the trip.]

But times seem to have changed. The voices coming from Congress these days are often consternations against the federal workforce. We are cast as fat-cat leeches who are overpaid and underworked. Several members have advocated for the dissolution of any number of agencies, and on some occasions they can even remember the names of a few of those agencies. Unfortunately, the IRS seems an easy one to remember.

These days, I’ve noticed more of my colleagues are reluctant to reveal where they work. For instance, my old boss and I attended a seminar a few years back. When the self-introductions got to him, he told folks he worked at a rather large not-for-profit organization and no one pursued it further. Pretty clever. And then there was the time I attended an outdoor rock concert with a friend, when the good and kind folks standing next to us asked where we worked. As that sinking feeling overtook my gut and I was about to answer, “Treasury Department,” my buddy and co-worker blurted out “the post office.” Our neighbors seemed pleased with this. So was I!

And now even our own agency is advocating hiding our IRS association to an angrier and more violent public. They are recommending we remove our I.D. badges when we go outside the building. And that’s not to protect the badge from environmental ravages.

What’s next? I can only imagine that in the not-too-distant future, we will all be issued clever disguises to fool the public. Maybe a welder’s mask, stethoscope with white lab coat, chef’s hat or toilet plunger and overalls. Or maybe T-shirts with the imprinted logo of more benignly perceived agencies, such as the Social Security Administration, Nuclear Regulatory Commission or NASA. So next time anyone asks, “Are you now or have you ever been a federal employee?” we can proudly answer, “Yes,” but only to a more kindly perceived agency.  That would eliminate my agency, the IRS, and I suppose also eliminate answering “a member of Congress”.  What do you think?

— Marc Beskin

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Michael O’Connell

The world’s largest leech is the  Giant Amazon Leech, which can grow to 18 inches in length.

Source: Smithsonian

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