40 years of work

It's the Labor Day holiday, celebrating the working men and women who made America great. Until I retired in 2016, I've always worked. From 1972-1976, following dropping out of college to work full time on the McGovern campaign after my sophomore year, I worked in the restaurant industry in New York City for a year then spent winters in Aspen and summers on Nantucket, enjoying skiing or beach time during the days and working at night.

Then after I returned to college to finish up my BA in history, I became a lawman from 1977 to 1987, two years as a deputy in Boulder County and seven years as a Colorado State Trooper. The latter was a job I enjoyed very much, being a first responder in the foothills and mountains in Jefferson County and Boulder County and spending a year on duty in Denver as part of the Executive Security Detail protecting Governor Lamm.

The first of my three children arrived in 1986 and I decided to get a more "regular" job rather than alternating the day shift with the night shift every two weeks with a week of graves thrown in every six weeks. So I went off to law school and worked as a consumer protection attorney for the government from 1990 to 2016 when I retired on principle due to discriminatory ageism by the new, current breed of self-serving mid-level managers that have no regard for institutionalism or their workers.

Since then I have tried to be a good, patriotic citizen working to return America to greatness and its traditions after four years of enervation and existential chaos. From being cemented in place for hours on the Mall by the overwhelming crowd at the Women's March in 2017 to now when I've carefully researched my voting plant, I've tried to continue making a difference after 40 years of actual productive labor broken only by two stints in school. In 2016 I worked in the presidential campaign for a candidate I didn't particularly like but who was obviously vastly superior  to the totally unqualified candidate opposing her.  In 2017, in addition to working in the Virginia gubernatorial campaign, I effected a pro se a settlement with my agency that granted me i) my proper last review of a grade of all Outstanding; ii) a lifetime achievement award; iii) a monetary settlement; iv) a requirement that the division provide training for management specifically relating to the scourge of ageism discrimination; v) including for any former managers who returned within five years (the manager most responsible, with help from the other managers he was in cahoots with, left the agency abruptly two weeks after I retired suddenly); and vi) most importantly to me, it did not contain NDA, because I don't believe in hiding away evidence or suggestions of wrongdoing behind ubiquitous NDAs.  In 2018 I worked all fall to help flip the nearby Tenth Virginia Congressional District from the party that held the seat for forty years.  Last year I registered voters and attended rallies in support of the impeachment of our incompetent, rogue president who is tearing down our country, perhaps irrevocably.  This year I've lined up neighbors to come vote with me at City Hall on the first day early voting opens, Friday, September 18th in Virginia.  I'm proud of my more than 40 years of lifetime work, and all the volunteering and other activism I've done done contributing to the community as well.