Sometimes, when you tell a big story, you start with a small one.
That’s the approach that author Michael Lewis takes as editor of Who Is Government. As Lewis writes, “There is the stereotype of the ‘government worker.” We all have in our heads this intractable picture: The nine-to-fiver living off the taxpayer who adds no value and has no energy and somehow still subverts the public will.”
Lewis has gathered fellow writers to tell the stories of women and men who work in the federal government. “The PR wing of the federal government isn’t really allowed to play offense, just a grinding prevent defense,” writes Lewis. “And the sort of people who become civil servants – the characters profiled in this book – tend not to want or seek attention.”
The stories contained are inspiring because they laud the expertise of these employees and underscore the commitment they have to our nation. Without exaggeration, they are soldiers on the home front working to serve and protect our natural resources, our food supply, our healthcare system, our research sciences, and so much more. [Lewis’s earlier book, The Fifth Risk, similarly addressed this topic.]
The stories
Among the stories that resonate are ones that no one would ever know about unless one went looking—as Lewis and the contributors did.
“The Canary” profiles Christopher Mark, who pioneered a way to prevent mine roof collapses, the largest killer of miners. Mark, who once worked as a coal miner in his youth, went on to get a Ph.D. in engineering and wrote his thesis on ways to prevent mine roof collapses. His work has resulted in minimizing such collapses and saving many lives.
“The Sentinel” features Roland E. Waters of the National Cemetery Administration (NCA). “Perhaps the most striking thing about Ron Waters,” writes Casey Cep, “His agency is one of the world’s experts on death, but he is an expert on how to live.” One aspect of what his agency does is repatriate the remains of service personnel who died overseas, something in which it takes pride. More broadly, these cemeteries “are designed to stir our moral imagination… on behalf, though not always, on behalf of our highest ideals.” The effort the agency expends gained them the highest customer satisfaction scores of any organization, as ranked by the University of Michigan’s study. On a 100-point scale, Costco scored 85, Apple 83 and Facebook 69. The average score for federal agencies is 68. NCA scored 97.
“The Equalizer” tells the story of Pamela Wright of the National Archives. A native Montanan, Wright administers the Archives, which manages the documents the government generates, including presidential records, historical documents, and Census Data. It also innovates. It was Wright who oversaw the development of a digital reference platform, the History Hub.
The agency also “physically” cares for the U.S. Constitution. All employees take an oath to that Constitution. As Wright told contributor Sarah Vowell, “That oath makes you realize that what you are doing is fundamentally important to the country, no matter what capacity you are in.”
More stories
Other stories include ones about a team of men and women working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab looking for signs of extra-terrestrial life; another about an FDA epidemiologist who founded CURE ID, a database for registering case histories of rare diseases that in turn can generate pathways to cures; and an IRS director working to detect cases of cyber fraud – an effort that actually generates income from “criminal settlements.”
The return
Streamlining government is a worthy goal. We all have been bedeviled at times by bureaucratic snafus (and snares), and so improvement is necessary. Yet, as with change, we say change is good as long as I don’t have to change myself. The same is true for the government.
Now, with the government under siege by cost-cutting measures that to some seem arbitrary and, in some cases, cruel, this book stands as a testament to those who represent the best of us.