Categories
Living in Society

An Unforgiven Year

Sunrise on a new day.

This week was the one-year anniversary of the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump. In my view, he and his sycophants can not be forgiven for the pain and suffering caused in 12 months.

Long before he was president I knew of an association between him and Jeffrey Epstein, convicted human trafficker, child sex offender, and serial rapist. I didn’t know the extent of Trump’s involvement, just that the two of them associated freely. Apparently more specific evidence of his transgressions and potential crimes are available within the Department of Justice which refuses to release the Epstein files even though the Congress passed a law requiring them to do so more than 30 days ago. Trump is unforgiven for his stonewalling.

In dismantling USAID, the U.S. government is directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths among people who relied on the largess of the world’s richest country. According to Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, hundreds of thousands of people have died for want of USAID. Trump is unforgiven for his inhumanity.

On July 4, 2025, Trump signed H.R. 1, a budget reconciliation bill that did untold harm to families across the country. Among other things, it cut $793 billion from Medicaid and $268 billion from the Affordable Care Act, resulting in over 10 million people becoming uninsured; and $200 billion from SNAP putting 5 million people at risk of losing their food assistance. Trump is unforgiven for his cruelty.

Also in H.R. 1, Trump increased the budget for immigration enforcement by $170 billion and unleashed an undisciplined and violent DHS on several states. The violence, including against U.S. citizens, is difficult to fathom. At least one death caused by DHS has been ruled a homicide. Yesterday, his immigration thugs invaded the State of Maine. Trump is unforgiven for his violence.

In the U.S. Army we called poor operations a goat screw, and certainly the attempted implementation of DOGE by Elon Musk was that. He cut funding in places like our local public library only to have the courts rule his actions were illegal. This back and forth left librarians in a quandary about how to maintain service during the tumult. The same holds true for other institutions cut by DOGE. Trump is unforgiven for his chaos.

One of the blessings I feel in my life is the heroism of the Greatest Generation in World War II. More than 50 million civilians died during the war, along with more than 20 million military personnel. Out of that conflict the world came together, forming the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Since then, Trump has been tearing those institutions apart, despite the many benefits. Trump is unforgiven for being a war monger.

Is there any positive side to this? The only one I can see is I know who I am, and this isn’t it. It is motivation to make change in our government which could then take action to change society for the better for everyone. It’s past time to get to work.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.