Public Service Essay, Research Paper

Public service is essential to protecting America and its citizens. It is responsible for ensuring that our air and water are clean, food is fresh, and material products are safe. Without public service, our society would be prone to impurity, and consequently, decay. Thus, the government does a great deed in providing civil service that is often taken for granted.

Coming from a family that has been public service oriented has shown me the value of public service, and even steered me in that direction. My father presently works for the EPA, but previously worked for the Indian Health Service. My mother previously worked for the city of Cincinnati as a personnel analyst and labor negotiator. I am now aspiring towards becoming a physician and possibly entering the Public Health Service.

Civil service is needed because it provides what the private sector cannot. There are many programs that are run very efficiently by the private sector. However, several important issues concerning the welfare of our citizenry would never be adequately addressed within a profit motivated environment. In addition, some government employees serve the public by overseeing the private sector to assure that potentially hazardous shortcuts are not taken to increase profits.

Of course, there are many more functions of public service than regulation of the private sector. Public service also encompasses law enforcement, record keeping, and the judicial system. Imagine what America would be like without law enforcement. Our legislative system depends on public service employees to carry out and enforce the laws that is has enacted. Similarly, the judicial system ensures that our laws are enforced fairly.

The record-keeping sector of public service is equally important. It is essential to know who is a citizen, where they reside, and whether they are receiving the benefits and services they need and to which they are entitled. Equally important, record-keeping tracks whether citizens are meeting their obligations, such as paying taxes to support our essential public service system. America would be thrown into legal and financial chaos without clear and accurate documentation.

As illustrated above, public service is really the backbone of our democracy. It provides for the orderly operation of our democratic government and its programs in an unbiased manner. Luckily, our forefathers understood the important role of the public sector in a government truly representative of all its citizens, as well as the role of an impartial and competent civil service. It protects us, organizes us, and serves us in a thousand ways every day. Without public service, America would not be the powerful nation it is today.