Politics in the (sort of) workplace

DQ here.  Recently, I had a chance to attend a luncheon in which awards were made for the Federal Employee of the Year in various categories.  Most of the program was what you would expect.  The ceremony began with the presentation of the colors and one of the finest renditions of the National Anthem I’ve ever heard (seriously, the gal from the post office who sang it was terrific!).  While the audience included folks from many federal agencies, the Coast Guard was especially well-represented, so the military was treated with great respect.  The food was excellent and the awards were impressive.  Your tax dollars at work, I guess.

I told Bookworm about this and she has been after me after since to post about it because of one particular problem I observed.  At various times, the luncheon became blatantly political.  For one thing, the decorations included a cardboard cutout of President Obama.  You’d be surprised how many people were eager to have their picture taken with, uh, his picture.  More significantly, various speakers made sharply political comments.  One talked at length about how important the EPA is, how it is under attack, and how he hoped it would not be eliminated.  Another talked about how proud he was to live in a country in which the President announced his support for same-sex marriage.

To be fair, most comments were non-political and the keynote speaker, a local politician, did her best to give a non-political speach.  But some of the comments did cross the line.  And, this being the San Francisco Bay Area after all, the comments that cross the line were the ones that met with the most enthusiastic response from the crowd.