It has been reported that USAID food designated for distribution sits in warehouses that charge a $10,000 per day storage fee and that more than 700,000 people have died thus far as a result of the cuts made by the Trump crew.
I have followed with great interest the reports of the impact of the cuts in USAID around the globe. USAID was one of the best uses of taxpayer money the United States engaged in across the globe. The food paste, medicines to prevent river blindness, to treat AIDS and many other ailments and related services that assisted some of the world’s poorest people in having a chance to live were such a marvelous investment made by our country. They not only saved lives, they generated goodwill for the United States.
Catherine Meeks
Why would anyone deem it necessary to discontinue it?
Elon Musk brought conspiracy theories and his personal agenda to the task, and Marco Rubio, who has little to no power and seems to have lost whatever bit of integrity he had at one time, could not find the courage to do anything about it. It is amazing that Musk, Rubio or anyone in the Trump crew can sleep at night. But it seems their ability to wield policies deeply grounded in cruelty and violence is fine for them because they continue to find even better ways to hurt people.
It is embarrassing to listen to them when they appear before Congress for oversight hearings and to listen to them refuse to take responsibility for any decision or behavior, to see them behave as sullen adolescents who are in too much pain to speak because of all the changes they are confronting as they move through their developmental process. But, unlike healthy adolescents, these folks appear to have frozen in some kind of very infantile stage that makes it possible for them to refuse to tell the truth, to respond to questions from senators by accusing others, by talking over their inquisitors and just being silent while refusing to answer the questions asked of them.
This behavior is grounded in their need to be in the Trump camp while trying to hold on to their less than a thimble full of power for a hot minute. It is clear their sense of morality and any sense of care for anyone other than their small conclave of like-minded people does not exist. Thus Rubio’s declaration that no one has died due to USAID cuts rolls out of his mouth as easy as taking a swallow of a nice cold drink.
“This behavior is grounded in their need to be in the Trump camp while trying to hold on to their less than a thimble full of power for a hot minute.”
It is quite difficult to believe he has not managed to hear the statistics in the public domain about the havoc caused by these cuts, information available to anyone who wishes to know the truth. I believe he knows the truth but finds it not expedient to acknowledge that truth — because the Trump regime operates on gaslighting and telling all the lies necessary to keep it fortified.
Why is our outrage not greater over this fact or over the murder in the Caribbean of folks who are probably fishermen, who if we were trying to stop them from trafficking drugs would need to be intercepted and arrested and not killed? Who are we becoming as we allow these folks to continue their reign of terror in so many arenas?
But perhaps there is a harder question to ask and answer: What were the elements in our country that allowed them to rise to power in the first place? This situation was not created overnight, and it will not be solved in one more election cycle. There is so much conversation about Democrats wining the House of Representatives next year, and while that is good to hear in some ways, it is not going to be the final answer to what is ailing us as a nation.
There has to be a plan built on a more solid foundation than the existing Constitution because we are experiencing the weaknesses in that structure as we see Trump reduce it to meaningless words. Of course, a functioning Congress would be helpful.
Clearly, we have to find new ways to build coalitions across lines of difference. We, the people, need to take a deep breath and find new ways to see and act because the old ways we have become captured by are demonstrating their ineffectiveness. While we have had millions marching in the streets, which is wonderful, we need more than that. The problem with mass protests is they are not a strategy that leads to substantive change unless there is a plan implemented long after the protesters have gone home.
Small acts of resistance over long and sustained periods of time have the effect of a small stream running over rocks; the rocks are changed by the vigilance of the stream, and the country will be changed by the vigilance of the small, committed acts of resistance. There are many among us who understand the necessity for long-term sustained action, and we are engaging it. Many more need to join us.
This type of resistance can be supported on social media, through community activism, writing blogs, speeches, conversations and in our worship places and civic organizations. The resistance has to be unrelenting, strategic and courageously engaged without fear or apology.
The call to change is nonnegotiable, and thoughtful people have to heed the call. Let’s be more than a half shade braver this time.
Catherine Meeks was given the President Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement and Service Award in August 2022; was listed by Georgia Trend Magazine as one of the 500 women to watch in Georgia in 2022; retired as the Clara Carter Acree Distinguished Professor of Socio-Cultural Studies at Mercer University; is a community and wellness activist and midwife to the soul; and the author of The Night Is Long, But Light Comes In The Morning, Meditations on Racial Healing, She previously served as founding executive director of Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing and currently serves as founder and executive director of the Turquoise and Lavender Institute for Transformation and Healing. She lives in Atlanta.