What You See is Real

A mourner placed flowers at the entrance of the US AID building in Washington this week. Dreamt into being by John Kennedy sixty years ago, the organization has been our nation’s chief distributor of humanitarian assistance, funneling food to famine-stricken areas, ensuring that thousands of children in Africa are born without HIV; that millions of other children do not fall victim to malaria and other easily preventable diseases.  

Of all the horrors unleashed by the new administration (there are far too many to enumerate) the gutting of US AID is among the most appalling. Over the past week, a private citizen with a vendetta took a wrecking ball to the agency, putting 2,000 employees on administrative leave and ordering those working on projects overseas to return home within 30 days. Staff wanting to stay longer, i.e. If their children were in school or for some other reason, they could foot the bill to return home. The agency’s web site, restored after going dark last week, offered only five words of gratitude to those who had worked tirelessly for decades. “Thank you for your service.” This after calling them “criminals.”

(This one hits home. My son works for US AID, securing a post after years of pursuing his dream to work there. As I write this, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the  administrative leave order and return of overseas staff.)

Of the estimated 10,000 employees worldwide, about six hundred will remain to carry out the gutted mission of the agency. Repercussions are incalculable. In Kenya alone, 40,000 health care workers will lose their jobs. Two refugee camps in North Kenya will close, threatening the well-being of 700,000 refugees from nineteen countries. World health experts have condemned the move, predicting that thousands will suffer, many will die. Autocrats, on the other hand, have applauded, recognizing that this will shrink the US sphere of influence. The demolition of US AID is illegal AND Immoral. Only those without a shred of humanity could mastermind this destruction. This is not who we are, or at least who we used to be before the election of our Felon-in Chief.

Last night I watched a movie depicting Lee Miller, a World War ll correspondent who fought her way into the ranks of the conflict’s top photojournalists. Her photos from the Dachau death camp shocked the world. In one scene, Miller asks a long time European friend why they could not stop the Nazis. “It all happened so fast,” her friend replies. “We didn’t believe that it was real.”