Concerning the March 7 article “Thrust into unemployment, axed federal workers face relatives who celebrate their firing,” I find it incredibly sad that family members of terminated federal workers are taking delight in the current avalanche of staff firings.

As a retired federal employee, I’d be the first to admit that there are inefficiencies within federal programs. However, there are right ways and wrong ways to improve efficiency, and the current approach is definitely more wrong than right. Achieving program efficiencies requires program evaluation skills and careful study — two aspects that are currently in short supply.

But what really saddens me is that the new administration has managed to convince their base that federal workers are the problem. They have demonized federal employees, just as they’ve demonized immigrants, DEIs and the president of Ukraine. They’ve even demonized FBI agents who are guilty of nothing more than doing their jobs and rightfully investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas can get away with accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from wealthy donors, and Elon Musk can pressure the FAA and NASA (the agencies that oversee his Space-X activities) without having any legal basis for doing so, but it’s the federal workforce that is being targeted as the problem.

Federal employees are just trying to do their jobs, meet the needs of our nation and make a living. They are not the problem. They deserve fairness and empathy, not contempt.

Kip Brown
Woodstock