Mrs. Obama’s outreach

Washington Post: The previous administration had an unfortunate tendency to refer sneeringly to “bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.” — as if the federal workforce were an alien entity to be subjugated rather than enlisted as an ally. In fact, the federal government, under Republican and Democratic administrations alike, depends on the labor of thousands of dedicated workers. As in the private sector, some of these employees may be harder-working or more gifted than others. Many of them, however, choose government jobs that pay less than what they could earn in the private sector because they want to serve their country. It is not often enough that their contributions are recognized rather than derided.

‘Thank you’

So it is nice to see first lady Michelle Obama embark on a tour of Cabinet departments to greet federal workers — and, in fact, to thank them. Two weeks ago, Ms. Obama visited the departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development; last week, she stopped in at Interior. “I wanted to come by, again, to simply say thank you,” Ms. Obama said. “Thank you for your service to this nation. It’s a simple message, but it’s one that we think is important to deliver.”

The first lady is devoting admirable effort to getting to know her new city. On Tuesday, she visited Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care, a community health organization in Adams Morgan. When a teen-ager asked why she had come, Ms. Obama explained, “We’ve been visitors, but now we live here. This is our community now. We were taught you have to get to know your community you’re in, and you have to be a part of that community and you have to get to know it in order to be actively engaged in it.”