That Was The Week That Was

Are we really only into the second week of chaos?

I write a column for my local newspaper, the Atlantic News Telegraph, twice month a month. It goes by the same name as my substack. I have been writing for the paper since 2018, mostly on community issues but also bringing in a state and national perspective. My columns have been diplomatic, always sensitive to other opinions. I have not been afraid to write my opinon, afterall it is an op/ed piece, but I have always been “nice.” This week I decided I am going to be bolder and more critical. I am losing respect for people who voted for this president. They put into office a man and his cronies whose policies will bring an end to our democracy. If I offend people who disagree with me, I am beyond caring.I am appealing to those are frustrated by what is happening and need information to mobilize on some level - postcard or letter writing, phone calling, texting, emailing - whatever they feel comfortable doing. Below is this week’s entry.

I have shared my views about people, politics and community for a several years now. I appreciate having a place to speak my mind and the feedback I receive from those of you who read my column. Thank you for your support.

This week has been a difficult week. Monday started with heart surgery for my sister in Vermont. She has been ill since Christmas and finally got well enough to have surgery. My task as the oldest sibling was to be the conduit for the information flow from my niece to my three brothers, one sister and extended family. The texts have been flying back and forth keeping track of surgery and post-op.

Her is recovery is progressing slowly but surely. I will be flying out to Vermont soon to help with her with rehabilitation.The week has been busy looking at flights and car rentals. There is an upside to my flying east besides helping my sis; I lived in Vermont before I moved back home and married so I will be visiting friends and taking a trip back in time.

caption...Photo by Emily Ho on Unsplash

On Tuesday at 1:00 pm. I received a text from our daughter who is a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner at One World Community, a public health clinic in Omaha. This clinic was set up during Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty in the 60s and is heavily reliant on federal grants. Her text is about the Federal freeze that happened and then un-happened, maybe. Who can tell in the chaos that has been created?

Her text - “I just got off of a zoom meeting at work about the latest executive orders which pauses all programs receiving federal grants which is One World and all clinics like ours. Our monthly payroll is heavily dependent on our federal grants and those have been frozen. It sounds like we have enough reserve for 60-90 days but if decisions aren’t made quickly by the federal government, clinics will likely start to close/consolidate. Apparently February 10th is the deadline for all 38,000 federal grant recipient programs to get their paperwork into the powers that be defending why they need continued funding and then funding decisions will be made after that.”

She will be able to find other employment if her clinic closes. It’s the loss of medical care for her patients that is concerning. The clinic uses a sliding income scale in an attempt to care for those who cannot afford our countries expensive health care system. Many of her clients are refugees and undocumented workers in the meat packing industry where the Omaha Livestock Exchange used to be. Her patients are pre-natal and pregnant mothers, many who work on the kill floor in the packing plants that surround One World Community. Doing the hard work and low paying jobs that most white folks won’t go near. Are the companies being penalized for hiring people desparate for work?

Some of her co-workers - nurses, midwives, doctors - are DACA, short for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, according to the website Boundless DACA.

“The DACA program serves as a lifeline for undocumented immigrants known as DREAMers – who arrived in the US as children.”

People who live in our communities in Cass County fit this description. It does not include our Pacific Islander residents who are here under another US relocation program.

The American Airlines crash and the response of the President added another blow to this week of confusion and chaos. For a leader of a country to blame the previous administration for its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policy is beyond ludicrous. To imply that people in the FAA had “severe intellectual' disabilities” instead of waiting for an investigation to draw conclusions left my mind reeling. To base his false statement on “I have common sense” is plain wrong. What has been reported so far is that the control tower was understaffed; the investigation will hopefully reveal the truth.

Before the election in November, I wrote about how Project 2025 will effect our lives if the Republican candidate was elected. The Project is unfolding in the most insidious ways with the new administration denying and lying about not knowing about Project 2025.

I urge you to do your own research and draw your own conclusions. I am not saying that our government/democracy is without its flaws. It is too big and needs a rational audit and evaluation, not a sweeping Executive Order that takes a sledgehammer to every program and person that has worked to make our lives better. Downsizing government should not carried out in a revengeful manner.

My conclusion is that it is that Project 2025 is dangerous and that our country is on it’s way to losing the very things people have gone to war and lost their lives for.

Update: My daughter reports that the meat packing companies have advised their workers to stay home. Yesterday she noticed empty parking lots. The consequences of acting irrationally will have spiraling economic hardships on workers without pay checks and the lagging food supply chain (pandemic redux?).