Government is Us 2.0

The genesis of the original classic, Government Is Us, was the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and subsequent responses from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Among their responses was issuing one ad that stated, ôThe next time you hear someone viciously attack our government and the Americans who work for it, tell them-Stop it. This is Our Government.ö

Cheryl Simrell King is a member of the faculty at The Evergreen State College, teaching primarily in the MPA Program. Co-author of Transformational Public Service: Portraits of Theory in Practice (2005, M.E. Sharpe), as well as articles in other trade press and academic journals, she writes and practices in the areas of democratizing and transforming public administration, accountability, sustainability and the relationships among citizens and their governments.