A Word Aptly Spoken

(A COMMON MISQUOTE FROM THE BEATITUDES.) BUT THE TRUTH IS THEIR LIVES HERE ARE VERY HARD

The poor are under attack in the United States of America. Many groups are under attack, but the common denominator is often economic status.  Much is being done to assure that these people will stay where they are or, in fact, lose assets and aid.

In my last shift at the food pantry, I heard two poor men bemoaning that “no white man” can get a job or get ahead in this country. They needed to look around at the other people around them because there were people of all colors, all religions, and both men and women. What they all had in common was that they lacked economic means to feed their families.  Most are the working poor.  Let’s look at what has been done in the last few months and is currently being done to all of the poor and the people just trying to make a living and be able to pay their bills. This is by no means an exhaustive list.

• Cut the program that bought products from American Farmers
• Cut the donations to Food Banks when they took away the program that bought from farmers
• Cut food going to lunches for school children when they cut the program to purchase from American farmers
• Cut programs doing research into diseases (including cancer, Alzheimer’s, MS, etc.)
• Cut programs giving information on best health practices and removed all information from websites
• Cut Medicaid which offers assistance with health care to those who cannot afford it.
• Terminated govenmental organizations tackling child, forced labor, and other human rights abuses.
• Eliminated the Department of Education which defunds public schooling
• Cut Head Start programs for underprivileged preschool children – a program that allows them to enter school on an even footing with their classmates
• Financial assistance for students through student loans and grants will not be available as these programs came through the Department of Education.
• College curriculums – Schools blackmailed to change the content or drop the class unless the school wants to lose funding
• Museums – remove all history that is not specifically approved by the current administration
• Remove all mention of any person of color who made a contribution to American history including The Tuskeegee Airmen and The Navajo Code Talkers
• Remove any mention of a historical person who is a member of the LGBTQ community.  Somehow this included removing mention of the Enola Gay because it had “gay” in its name.  That’s the name of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
• The Smithsonian Institute – remove all history that isn’t in agreement with their vision.  Start with the Smithsonian’s African American Museum and included firing the black man who was overseeing it.
• The Kennedy Center – Put restrictions on the art being performed and the educational programs that have been offered. Only the art that the administration likes should be performed. And classes will be determined by the government instead of people who are professionals in the arts. Caused many cancellations by artists and led to people resigning.
• Blackmailing universities and colleges to take away students’ 1^st Ammendment to assemble, speak, and report in the press or risk losing all funding.
• LEGAL immigrants – sent to torturous prisons in foreign countries
• Consideration of AMERICAN citizens being sent to the same torturous prisons
• Lawyers being denied entry into government buildings and further threatened for handling any case that the administration didn’t like – essentially denying a fair trial for many, many people.
• Removal of 1^st Amendment rights highlighted here starting with college campuses or anyone enrolled in higher education. (Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.)
• Denied access to White House briefings for any news media that reports anything the administration doesn’t like which means that the public is ill informed and that the freedom of the press is being taken away.
• Usurping and defying Constitutional separation of powers – notice the amendment says that Congress shall make no law – that’s because ONLY Congress is allowed to establish law
• Defying the Federal and Supreme Courts – when the administration admitted it made a mistake deporting a man to the foreign prison, they have done nothing to correct their mistake thereby defying a court order.
• Denied birthright citizenship to babies born in the United States which violates the 14^th Amendment  
• Arrested and deported people without due process or a trial – illegal according to the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th Amendments of the US Constitution
• Took away food and medicine from starving people which had been committed to by Congress
• Attempting to curtail the voting rights of many groups of citizens including any woman who has taken on her husband’s name after marriage.  When the GOP declared they weren’t doing that, a bill was introduced to assure married women the right to vote.  It was rejected by the GOP so they must be doing what they are accused of.
• Illegally fired govenment employes – especially at any department having oversight of unethical business practices or programs to help the public directly
• Disolved contracts made by Congress and other legal representatives within the government that gave employment to many Americans
• Firing tens and tens and tens of thousands of ordinary working class Americans from jobs in the government without just cause and in defiance of the law.
• Working to close the Counsumer Financial Protection Bureau that protects citizens from unscrupulous business, banking, and investment practices 
• Decreed by edict that all mention of inclusion, equity, or diversity in hiring be removed from all government offices and any company doing business with the government.  Assumed that all people of color, all women, and all LGBTQ people were hired without qualifications and they were purged.  Including from high positions in military and government.
• Fired the top two women military officers and the top black male military officers who rose through the ranks and worked with good reviews and were well respected.
• The current president is implementing Project 2025 – a document that has never been voted on by the American people. He is doing this after denying that he knew anything about it throughout the campaign so that his supporters would not worry.
• Put an immigrant billionaire with no knowledge of the law and the Constitution in charge of doing his dirty work. Gave this man security clearances without any vetting or approval by Congress.

I am certain that I have missed many, many other attacks, cuts, and lawless actions.  These are the ones I know about. But if you look at these actions, you will see that most are aimed at the poor and working class. They are meant to take away programs from the needy, remove protections from immoral characters running businesses, and eliminate any help or even information about health care and diseases.

Even scarier, there are actions mentioned above and others (think Greenland, Panama, Mexico, and Canada) are designed to alienate us from the rest of the world. This administration is systematically hiding and distorting our history so that they can change the reality of what happened. They are also defying the Constitution and the courts, taking away the powers of the checks and balances in place to prevent a dictatorship. And the president declared himself king on his own social media platform.

Most of the actions taken by the current presidential administration are being challenged in courts.  They are losing most, if not all, of these cases because they are defying the law and the Constitution.  When they lose, they attack the courts, lawyers working on the cases, and anyone else they can try to blame.  While many of the judges hearing the cases were put on the bench by the current president, he is not winning because he didn’t effectively buy all of them – they have integrity and knowledge of the law.  Not what he is looking for.  He wants blind allegiance.

The people who voted for him are being hurt most. I’m hearing lots of them regretting their votes – or at least in total shock. They were sure he wouldn’t hurt them as he implemented his policies. And yet he started by attacking the farmers and putting tariffs in place that will hurt every American but none so much as those who already struggle. What I really don’t understand are the people who are suffering under these actions and are still looking at him as if he was a deity who could do no wrong. Maybe we can tell why they are poor.