To the Editor,

Sadly…

Months into the next few years and our world has changed under our feet. Winter is still winter, Spring is still Spring with all the abundant glories of nature to enjoy. Driving thru our beautiful countryside here in the Lakes region, stopping at places to visit with neighbors and friends, maybe play some pulltabs or video horse races to enrich our social life is all we need to enjoy our advanced years.

And then, disaster struck. The government services us older folks enjoy and depend on for continuity of income, health services, national and local security, food and water safety …all things we have taken for granted until NOW.  Stability and predictability have been replaced by chaos in the new Musk/Trump administration.

It didn’t start here. The planning started with the Ronald Reagan declaration that government is the problem not the solution. This was followed by attacks on organized labor, and resistance to advancing the social and economic status of racial, gender, and nationality differences, all of which have enriched our great diverse society. The final blow was the conservative Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allowing virtually unlimited contributions to political campaigns.

We now have a deeply and evenly divided political landscape where legislation is guided more by political contributors than responsible governing. Legislators are tasked to provide essential government services individuals and businesses cannot provide themselves. We hear statements like “small government” and “fiscal constraints” as ruling dogma over solving problems and long range planning for the common good.

I personally worked in federal government at several levels for decades and came to realize there is no way to budget the “unknown” like natural disasters, world unrest, wars, famines, pandemics, fires, floods…as well as progressive research and development programs leading to major improvements to our safety net while providing industry new technology to use in building products of the future.

Yes, there is the appearance of waste a few young techies could seemingly identify with no real awareness of the jobs themselves. Job performance is  manager/supervisor responsibilities. Loss of key individuals in critical programs and projects have devastating, even fatal effects. Recovering the losses costs far more than savings from the firings. 

  Presidents Musk’s/Trump’s directives have been devastating while offering no benefits to our economy. Taking employees out of the government/contractor workforce simply means fewer people in the consumer base buying products and services. a lose/lose strategy. 

  Late note. The black Friday meeting with Trump and Zelensky clearly showed where Trump and his Republican supporters are…not the United States but the tyrannical, murderous dictator of Russia. The applause from extended MAGA to all former Republicans is deafening and scary. 

Lee Purrier,

Park Rapids