EMERGENCY RANT!!! PLEASE READ!

Combating the Immiserator-in-Chief

My Daughter’s Email Calling for Help

My daughter, Hannah, works as a program manager for [name of organization not to be given]. The programs she manages, [blank] as an organization, indeed, U.S. foreign aid of all kinds is being decimated by Trump’s short-sighted, cruel, and idiotically ideologically driven orders to stop all such aid.

a few kids from Myanmar

This morning, I got this email from Hann. Please give it a careful read:

Hi family and friends,

After a bright spot last night with the injunction against the federal assistance freeze, things are continuing to get worse. USAID has fired hundreds of staff and we are starting to receive termination notices for vital programs. Aid is not reaching vulnerable populations around the world. My heart is absolutely breaking.

If you need more context for the situation, NPR, CNN, AP, Devex, and others are all reporting on the immense impact unfolding in the international development world at home and abroad. The ramifications are massive, inhumane, and intended to be cruel.

Please Take Action

If you can, one way to mitigate the immediate and cruel human impact is to donate to some of the vital, life-saving work that Myanmar scholars I work with are conducting in Myanmar with funds that have now been frozen. The link below is for a GoFundMe trying to raise $3,000 to continue a children's immunization program led by a scholar I personally know. Please share with anyone you know, along with my email. There is no time for precise and polished messages, things are extremely dire.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/urgent-help-needed-for-myanmar-childrens-health?attribution_id=sl:26229561-ce55-4011-a1f9-c0cfc66ebc36&lang=en_US&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link

My Connection

This scholar, [name not given], was someone I used to directly support in my former position. He is in his second year of a public health degree at UGA. He is a doctor [rest of sentence not given]. He is one of the kindest, most giving, motivated people I have met. He is a leader amongst his cohort of scholars, and despite all of the odds against him, he continues to do everything in his power to contribute to the health and wellbeing of people in his community.

Please share this far and wide, because immediate and even modest contributions in USD will go very far in Myanmar.

Love,

Hann

Three Action Steps to Take, If You Are So Inclined...

Here are three things you can do to help, if you are so inclined. Please consider each one carefully.

Action Step #1:

Please donate to the GoFundMe appeal above. You’ll sleep a bit better tonight if you do.

Action Step #2:

Please give this Op-Ed from the Brookings Institute a read. It’s titled “What every American should know about US foreign aid.”

Action Step #3:

Please contact your federal Senators and Representatives to express your concern, nay, outrage about this destructive and ruinous policy being carried out (among so many others!) against U.S. foreign aid by the Trump administration (meaning by Project 2025).

How does one get in touch with these power-brokers? Easy. Go to My Reps. Just type in your address and all of your government representatives—local, state, federal—will appear. Down at the bottom of the page you’ll find your Senators and House Representatives.

SEND THEM AN EMAIL

I know it seems futile, but actually it’s not. Futile is what Trump wants us to feel. Don’t fall for it.

So Many Thanks!