Can't see the forest for the bureaucracy

Magnet#1082 - USDA Forest Service

Neat magnet! My sister picked it up for me at the Forest Service building where they keep Smokey Bear's office.

The Forest Service within the Department of Agriculture takes care of U.S. land management, keeping our 193 million acres of forests and grasslands intact. They work on the landscapes and protect water resources - caring for the land, and the people on it.

There's something I've been thinking about since Obama's last State of the Union address last month. That whole thing about the salmons?

"Then there's my favorite example: the Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they're in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them in when they're in saltwater. And I hear it gets even more complicated once they're smoked."

- President Obama, State of the Union Address

He said it within the context of telling us he plans to consolidate federal agencies and eliminate redundancies. I mean, everyone complains about the bureaucracy of the US government, that it takes forever to push the paperwork, and navigate all the different branches and services and groups and sectors that overlap and duplicate and possibly counteract each other?

I get it. It's probably a necessary step, and one that will take forever to accomplish. But, the thing is, if he gets rid of several different agencies, that's also eliminating jobs, too.

And where do those folks end up getting absorbed?

"Remember. Only YOU can prevent wildfires!"*

Magnet #1063 - Smokey's Office

Since the 1940s, Smokey Bear has been the spokesbear for preventing forest fires in America. Thousands of leaflets, posters, radio, print, tv and onlines, he's still one of our most recognized advertising - and government- icons. Talk about a campaign with legs!

And with the Ad Council and several other partner organization's help, he's still fighting the good fight at his website, still trying to help educate people on the importance of preserving our nation's forests.

My sister got me this magnet from the U.S. Forest Service, just off the Mall in DC. Of course, I've now visited the exhibit twice myself. Yes. Twice. Within a month.

What? Ya'll know I love bears.

And, even though animatronics freak me out like no one's business, I love visiting Smokey Bear's office!

*Smokey says his original "Remember. Only YOU can prevent forest fires." in the video I took, because according to the ranger on staff, it's the 1930s or 40s in his office. The Forestry Service changed over to preventing wildfires in 2001, in an effort to include forest, wild, and brushfires.

"Issued by Woolworth"

Magnet #1062 - Social Security

My friends bought this magnet for me, an old ad and/or poster for the introduction of Social Security back in the late 1930s. Thanks! And, since I'm in DC this week, I figure I'd use a government-y magnet.

The Social Security Administration had several precursors in many ways, shapes and forms, but it wasn't until FDR announced his intention to Congress in 1934 to create a Social Security program that it became an official government agency.

It's pretty cool, if you think about it, how such an administration - no matter how you feel about it politically or socially - can manage to just launch itself, and still be around to this day. It's stuff we take for granted here in the U.S., our ability to create (relatively) stable administrations/offices for the public good, and keep them up and running.

Mind you, there was probably a ton of work to be done to get Social Security launched, and I bet a ton of things went into action the day that FDR said, let's do this. A year later, when FDR signed the Social Security Act into law, that's when the real work began.

Man, I would love to have seen the implementation and marketing plans for this project. They would need 100% awareness, and just think about it - a country in disarray from the Depression, millions out of work, and suddenly, it's about assigning, tracking and paying out Social Security numbers to every citizen in the United States. The United States! Whoa!

According to the SSA, the first number was assigned a New Rochelle, NY, resident, a Mr. John David Sweeney, Jr. But, funnily enough, his number wasn't the lowest number ever - a lady from New Hampshire - Grace Dorothy Owen - had SSN: 001-01-0001. Come on, I would totally play those numbers in the PowerBall lottery.

But, here's something even funnier on the SSA site.

A few years later, folks were still applying for SSNs and cards, and this wallet manufacturer wanted to show how SS cards could fit into their wallets. So they printed up some sample SS cards (no, really, it said "specimen" on it) to stick into the wallets, and went about their merry way, distributing them to Woolworth's and other department stores.

Sounds all well and good, right? I mean, even now, we all get those wallets with fake John/Jane Doe credit cards included.

Yep. Would have been ok, except that some whiz kid from the wallet manufacturer decided to use a real SSN from a real individual - his secretary, Mrs. Hilda Schrader Whitcher, SSN: 078-05-1120.

Um, what?

Turns out - in what I can only believe is proof positive that all my government clients aren't wrong for overthinking the simplest of things when it comes to the American public - some people who bought the wallet started using Hilda's number as their own! Seriously.

And I'm not talking just one or two silly people. Apparently in 1943, as many as 5,755 people were using that number. Almost 6,000 people!

Of course, the SSA folks had to cancel the number, and publicize that it was an invalid number.

And yet, even through 1977, a dozen people were still using Hilda's number that was "issued by Woolworth."

Good grief.