Dear Source:
The following excerpt of Governor deJongh's message last night, with the passages I have put in bold, should be pasted on the cubicle of every government employee, included all elected and appointed officials:
"Meanwhile, local law enforcement personnel–like every other government employee–have to become more customer-friendly, and must be held accountable for their actions, deJongh said.
"Because in many ways, the deepest problem we face is one of attitude and culture," the governor said. "For too long, disdain and disregard have been allowed to become the culture of our organization."
This advice applies especially to the Legislative minority–and I would add in the words of the famous folk song that if they want to hold us back from progress, then "get out of the way, for the times they are a'changing."
Non-governmental persons serving the public would do well to heed this advice as well.
For the first time in many years, I have hope that the territory under deJongh and the nation under Barack Obama can follow this vision and leadership to break the shackles on government placed there by people and organizations which have self-interest at heart and do great things for all of us with the help of all of us.
Dena Langdon
St. Thomas
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