Do Not Go Gentle

Do not go gentle into that good night. 

Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

                                                Dylan Thomas

It was the courageous testimony of Marie Yovanovitch, former ambassador to Ukraine with thirty-three years experience in the Foreign Service Department –fired by the 45^th president of the United States in 2019—who first got me thinking about the people behind the scenes, government employees working to keep us safe and healthy, individuals who must stay focused while the pendulum of politics shifts about them. 

I wrote a blog about it in November of that year, elements worth repeating as I watch Elon Musk and the now-47^th president take a wrecking ball to the lives of civil servants, people whose careers have been to SERVE the citizens of the United States of America. 

It’s not that I don’t understand economic realities. I have had the painful experience of laying off employees for no reason other than a declining bottom line. I, too, have had my job eliminated –three times. But there is a way to do it respectfully, a process that speaks to the dignity of another human being. That is why I find it unfathomable what is transpiring under this president. 

But not surprising. 

In my November 2019 blog, I wrote about the power of political will; how President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and proposed an ambitious 37-step pollution agenda to Congress NOT because he was a “a nature lover,” but because he was politically astute enough to realize the political power of an environmental movement that was sweeping the country.

If ever there was a time for such a grassroots upswelling it is now. 

I suspect the President knows that—which is why every day there is a deluge of events designed to create chaos, destroy, degrade, illicit despair, overwhelm those already overwhelmed by life’s day-to-day responsibilities.

But I’ve had enough. 

I am writing emails to politicians every week about those issues closest to my heart—chastising those who turn a blind eye, encouraging those who share my outrage. I am letting them know I: 

• Stand with Ukraine and all democracies. Especially ours.
• Will not stand with bullies. 
• Want the 1% taxed to address our country’s debt and help fund essential programs. History shows trickle-down economics doesn’t work.
• Insist our water be safe to drink, our air safe to breathe, our carbon emissions reduced to protect the health of our planet.
• Do not want to see Medicaid, which protects some of our most vulnerable citizens slashed—if not because it’s the right thing to do, then because it potentially will exasperate an already difficult homeless situation.
• Do want to see Medicare protected, the Affordable Care Act expanded. 
• Expect public health to be supported—to include vaccines and the research behind vaccines. (My towheaded cousin, beloved first grandchild of my grandmother, died seven weeks before his sixth birthday of polio. We cannot go back!) 
• Want all children in this country to have access to a quality education—and the opportunity to afford a post-secondary education—whether that be a trade school, community college or university. 

Thanks to organizations creating grassroots efforts like Indivisibles, I plan to sign petitions, march, have conversations with those who agree—and those who do not. And, of course, I plan to write. Although I am in my seventies, my journey to protect home and all I hold dear is not winding down. It is just beginning. Thanks for joining me. And sharing this post with others.