Posted on 10/17/2013 9:36:47 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Betty Reid Soskin couldn't be more delighted to be dressing for work and getting ready to head into the office.
Betty Reid Soskin couldn't be more delighted to be dressing for work and getting ready to head into the office.
For Soskin, the "office" is the the visitor's center at the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historic Park in Richmond, Calif., which has been shuttered since Oct. 1 because of the partial government shutdown.
"I'm absolutely delighted," she told NBC Bay Area on Thursday morning, after Congress voted to end the shutdown late Wednesday night. "Right now, I'm getting ready for work. I have a conference call, then I'll clear out my emails and then start my day."
The 92-year-old San Francisco Bay Area woman - the oldest fulltime U.S. park ranger - is one of the more memorable voices heard during the shutdown, when she publicly voiced her displeasure at being furloughed. She didn't mind so much that she was missing her paycheck. She didn't like sitting idle for nearly two weeks.
In the last decade of her life, she said that she feels she is still alive for a purpose - to give a firsthand account about working women during WWII - since she lived through that herself. Soskin worked as a clerk for the all-black Boilermakers A-36.
And she felt that hanging around the house while she was furloughed was simply a huge waste of time for a women of her age.
"At this stage of my career, I have a sense of urgency," Soskin said in a previous interview.
During the shutdown, Soskin said she "mostly gave interviews," adding that she realized that she became a human "backstory," giving voice for the roughly 800,000 federal workers who were also furloughed. "I didn't do much of anything," she said.
So, that's why Soskin was excited when she watched the congressional vote on C-Span - a vote that told her she'd be in the office the next morning. And it's not only her, but workers at the country's 400 national parks, including at Yosemite, and at federal agencies, including at NASA Ames in Moffett Field, will also be turning on their computers and start collecting paychecks starting on Thursday.
And after clearing out her slew of emails, Soskin said she's ready to slip into her role as interpretive park ranger again, educating people on the role of women and African-Americans during World War II.
"I get to share my knowledge with the public again," Soskin said. "I missed that."
Even in shutdown, Feds get overtime, comp time, ‘Sunday pay’
http://washingtonexaminer.com/even-in-shutdown-feds-get-overtime-comp-time-sunday-pay/article/2536565
Nearly Three-Quarters of Jobs Created Since June Are in Government
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2967002/posts
Shutdown Preparations Prove Most Government Is Waste
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/093013-673139-most-of-white-house-staff-revealed-as-waste.htm
Washington Sees Incomes Soar as Most of U.S. Declines
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3069096/posts
Yeah, they’re suffering more than most Americans... for sure.
It boggles my mind that giverment people can’t think of one thing to do to occupy their time when they are not “at work.”
Sooo... why wasn’t she working like the others Zero had being sturmtruppen at the veterans memorial?
I’m absolutely delighted about my paid vacation. Thank you much..
This is just the MSM’s job of countering the thuggish acts of the NPS.
I suspect if some local historical society took over the site, she would probably be almost as happy to work without pay.
I won't say "as happy" because getting paid something to do the same work is always better than volunteering. But most people volunteer because they enjoy it.
Ah, one of the rare ones that loves to actually help and assist?
Yeah, that wouldn’t fly well with the sturmtruppen types.
Various responses that went through my mind as I read thsi in no particular order
Another journalistic puff piece on nonessential feral government employees. Zero out the NPS budget.
Bravo.
... but it is someone’s grandmother....
And she’ll kick yer butt if ya sass her too!
[At least, my grandmother would!]
My Shutdown Memory Bank will hold the following forever:
1. Ted Cruz is a hero and a patriot.
2. The Obamacare Roll-out was a bust.
3. The National Park Rangers will never recover their previous reputation.
Screw the park service and it’s employees. All their crap about working for the people is just that. They take orders from Washington and if they told these little goose steppers in training to shoot US citizens who entered THE KINGS FOREST, they would and then pronounce “I was just following orders, I was just doing my job...”
Piss on them!
With a corncob. Not quite the same reality as the sanctimonious PBS ads showing various parks and saying "This is yours", is it?
Wonder if any had the personal integrity to work during the shutdown, serving those who own the parks? Probably not. To admit doing so would get them fired.
Dragging some senile old bag back to work is supposed to make them some sort of folksy institution?
Sorry if this lady is nice and all, but I’m beyond caring about the odd decent person that works for the new nazis.
I’m sure Hitler had some doddering old nice ladies working for him too. I’d still have shot them if given a chance.
Guess this means all those crap PSA’s whining about how our National Parks are “underfunded” will be back on my radio...
Maybe the old bat could have read up on just how terrible Odingacare is for America and lent her voice to it’s defeat.
Just kidding I know a government worker isn’t going to go against the monster providing them with a job unless it is going to bite THEM.
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