I'm Terrified

 

January 20th to today has left me terrified as I listen to U.S. news. Terrified for my birth country, terrified for people I know and don't know, terrified for the world.

With each new executive order my fear increases.

1. There is now a U.S. Secretary of Defense that has said "Kill all Muslims" like some demented Crusader from the Middle Ages. I have Muslim friends. I've spent time in Muslim countries and respect their rich culture. Even without that death wish to another people, the man is unqualified based on his past failures and moral failings.
2. The U.S. is withdrawing from the World Health Organization whose headquarters I walked by regularly on my way to work for ten years. I've eaten with, laughed with, shared with WHO employees, dedicated people who work to make the world better against the ravages of disease.
3. I may have disliked Bolton for his politics, but he worked for his country. I loved Dr. Fauci for his trying to bring sanity to fighting a pandemic. Both men's lives were threatened for their stances. Removing their security protection (and others) is not how a civilized society responds to government employees who did their jobs.
4. The American medical system is less of a disgrace for an industrialized country with Obama Care. There is still much work to do, but there are improvements. Caps on some drug prices were one positive step. Those caps, instituted by Biden's executive order 14087, are being removed. Though I don't live in the U.S., I have friends who suffer from diseases requiring regular exorbitanty-priced medication. The lack of caps will impact them financially negatively, but impact the already obscenely profitable drug companies positively.
5. For years my cousin worked for FEMA. He saw heartbreaking situations. A presidential threat to eliminate FEMA, which helps ordinary Americans rebuild lives from disasters that they did not create is beyond irresponsible. No one wakes up and says, I think I will lose everything today and have an earthquake, tornado or hurricane so I can suck up government money. Over the years I have noticed that states which do not want to help other states are first in line when it comes to their state needing help.
6. Withdrawal from climate change treaties reveals ignorance at best. One does not need to be a weather scientist to see the changes as glaciers melt and weather extremes exist all over the world.
7. Putting DEI employees on leave. Not all my friends are white, healthy males. Decades of working toward giving everyone a chance to work is being rolled back with the stroke of a pen.
8. When America was putting immigrant kids in cages, I cried. That there was no attempt to identify children and parents for future reunions. When I was researching a book and spent time in a former Nazi concentration camp, I was amazed at their record keeping. There is much to be improved in the American immigration system. "Let them come legally" cries need the framework to let them come legally. Lies about criminals among immigrants - yes there are some - ignores that there are more native born criminals. It ignores the reasons people want to immigrate and the work they do that Americans won't. Treating them as less than human, rounding them up, throwing them back into their birth countries where they face the same conditions that sent them on dangerous treks is not a human solution.
   
9. Cutting of foreign aid to everyone except Israel. Foreign Aid is often given in the form of arms which gives jobs to Americans, which is another issue in itself. Personally, I find the idea of foreign aid for genocide repulsive. Could I be wrong to think the horror of Gaza could have been shortened without the U.S. help?
10. Forbidding agencies to speak with important information for citizens, information they may need to save their lives. Aren't tax payers entitled to the information their tax dollars paid for? If there are discoveries that will hurt them, why should this information be hidden by the government?
11. Other appointees to cabinet posts add to my fear. A medical con man for the Department of Health who wanted to be a senator by carpet bagging to another state does not provide confidence but more fear of the damage that can be done.
12. A Nazi salute, no matter how a white washing attempt is constructed, by a man who seems to own the president financially, is beyond frightening.

I could go on and on for the reasons I'm terrified that my birth country is in danger of destroying the things that make it good. I could go on and on for fear the limitations my daughter and step-grandchildren will have in this cowardly new world. I could go on and on about my fear for peace around the planet. I could go on and on about my fear that the planet will become more uninhabitable. 

This is not making American Great Again. It is making it worse. 

Instead I will work on quelling my fears so I can function within my private world knowing it is not enough.

 

Action threatened against sanctuary cities. Sanctuary has been a concept since the Dark Ages.