Joseph Sabino Mistick: The dignity of the American worker

As Donald Trump’s hatchet man, Elon Musk has embraced his assignment to fire government employees with gusto and bravado, even brandishing a chain saw for the media, as if this is somehow fun and entertaining.

Musk’s utter coldness should surprise no one, since he has said, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit.” And they will likely be coming for Social Security next, since Musk calls it a “Ponzi scheme.”

That’s not loose talk. When he was recently questioned about whether Social Security is fair game, Utah’s Republican Sen. John Curtis told “Meet the Press,” “We’re not being honest when we look people in the eye and say we’re not going to touch it.”

Every new administration has taken a hard look at the massive federal bureaucracy with an eye toward greater efficiency. But no one has fired thousands of government employees as coldly and cavalierly as Trump and Musk.

“I feel like the cruelty is the point, if I am being honest,” a terminated federal worker told CNN. They have been cut off cold and kicked to the curb by e-mail terminations with no follow-up regarding post-employment benefits.

Public employees are an easy mark, since every citizen can claim to pay their salaries. And there is government excess — just as there is in the private sector — that deserves our attention. But America can do better by our fellow Americans who are caught in this web.

Tim Shriver, chair of the Special Olympics, co-founded The Dignity Index in 2021 to address the divisions in our society that result from not treating each other with dignity. The index is an eight-point scale that measures contempt and dignity in our personal and public relationships.

“The Dignity Index is designed to draw our attention away from the biases of partisan politics and toward the power we each have to heal our country and each other,” according to its website.

The lower scores reflect the dehumanizing treatment of others that continues to divide us — and that we are seeing with these mass firings. The higher scores reflect behavior “grounded in dignity.” Shriver argues dignity unites us and will eventually become a “winning political strategy … a mark of patriotism.”

Author Nicolaus Mills, in his recent article in Cleveland.com, “My mother, the faceless bureaucrat,” makes the case for public employees and their dignity. His mother was a dedicated government worker who went to work when his father died, but for anyone who did not know her, “… she was someone who fit the profile of the kind of anonymous public servant Elon Musk is anxious to fire.”

His mother, Muriel, took pride in her job at what is now the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, helping to find housing for returning World War II veterans and struggling families.

“These people were often guests in our home and had many stories about how my mother had helped cut through red tape to get them a place to live,” writes Mills.

“I don’t see Elon Musk worrying about people like my mother. Rather than imagining how job loss can be devastating for a middle-class family, he seems to treat firing as a joke.” Wearing a baseball cap when giving interviews, he acts like the firings “are a made-for-TV sporting event.”

Government workers, like all other hardworking Americans, were not looking for a mere paycheck when they took their jobs. They were looking for the opportunity to do something worthwhile for a paycheck — with dignity. They deserve to be treated with dignity now.