What I Think About What Other People Say (WITAWOPS)

  “Federal government employees promote duplication, inefficiency. They squander our tax dollars.” -- an accusation levelled at me directly, in-person, December 2024 What Do I Think Like many, I once accepted this myth without question simply because I had no other evidence . That was 20 years ago. Since then, I’ve navigated four federal agencies, four types of employment, four cities, and eight different laws. This journey has given me a deeper appreciation on what is, undeniably, a complex issue. To unpack it properly, this blog post will be a bit longer than usual —so grab a coffee and settle in! Here’s the bottom line : Yes, for many reasons, the federal bureaucracy is inefficient. Most of these inefficiencies are similar to those you’d find in the administration of a small town, a large city, a state, or even a major private organization. I believe what sets the federal government apart is the added complexity of two key clauses in the U.S. Constitution: the “Power of the Pur...

“What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet” --William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet History—and the labels we use to describe it—often depends on who is telling the story and what narrative they are trying to promote. From rebels to revolutionaries, pirates to privateers, or reformers to radicalists, the same actions can be framed very differently depending on perspective and intent. What Do I Think?  Consider two examples: The forces that fought the Syrian Government in late 2024, or the British in Boston in 1773 were rebels challenging established order. But to their supporters at the time, and to the world later on, they were revolutionaries acting against tyranny. In both cases, the distinction between "rebel" and "revolutionary" shifted depending on who was writing the history. The line between piracy and privateering is equally malleable, only distinguished by the author’s perspective. The famous pirate, Blackbear...

Portland’s Summer of Rage, coffee shop boycotts, and university campus protests are recent examples of Americans attempting to influence a particular outcome. But were they successful? Today I offer a recent practical example of a successful boycott. "Our audacious, innovative, and patient actions, backed by USAID and the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, offered a twenty-first-century example of a successful, peaceful protest. I reaffirmed what history had taught me, that organized campaigns, grounded in economic impact, are more powerful than standalone protests." -Galeeb Kachra, 2021 What Do I Think? Were recent protests as successful as the lunch room boycotts in the 1960s that led to the civil rights movement in the American south or Gandhi’s 1930s salt march in India that led to Indian independence? In 2009, I had the opportunity to help apply the lunch room and salt march lessons to help Kenyan youth stop the illegal development of a public park. The Illegal Grab “Taifa Park, ...

There is heightened interest in the inefficiencies of the executive branch of the federal government. Today, I unravel some of these inefficiencies using a recent fish farm example.  U.S. Court of Appeals , 5th Circuit, 2020 : “Harvesting,”  we  are  told,  implies  gathering  crops,  and  in  aquaculture  the  fish  are  the  crop.  That  is  a  slippery  basis  for  empowering  an  agency  to  create  an  entire  industry  the  statute does not even mention. We will not bite”    Natural predator guards a tilapia fish farm in Lake Victoria, Uganda The Problem There is heightened interest in the inefficiencies of the executive branch of the federal government. All organizations—whether private, governmental, or non-profit—must engage in continuous optimization to stay effective. They may achieve this through internal reforms...