Deaf to the cries of humanity?

There is something obscene about Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, shutting down our country’s vital aid to the world’s most vulnerable people. Sadly, he has the full backing of President Trump. The scope and impact of the work of the US Agency for International Development is hard to fathom. Hundreds of vital water projects, tons of emergency food and medicine, programs to eradicate and control the spread of diseases, programs supporting women and girls in vulnerable situations. Initiatives that save millions of lives and bring some stability in desperate places. Here is one testimony among many from the past few days: “I currently work for a USAID -funded organization which is dedicated to life-saving treatments and measures for HIV, TB, and other transmissible diseases. What people don’t understand about this freeze is that it is going to be irreversible. Many of our patients in Africa and India do not have alternate funding to support their staff. The support we have built over the past decade with capacity-building efforts in Kenya and South Africa will be lost. This work supports women who are HIV positive to prevent transmission to babies, local epidemiological research to ensure diseases like Ebola don’t get out of control … I have spent the last week telling our partners they have to stop this work. It’s heart-breaking to see decades of work being destroyed without any plan to rebuild. … In the meantime, 1000s of people will suffer and die.”

All of this suddenly stopped. Tons of food and medicine in transit stalled. Six thousand Americans facilitating these projects in far-flung places, and their families suddenly told to stop work and do what? The total outlay for US foreign aid last year amounted to just 1.2% of the federal budget. And as Eugene Cho, president of the Christian organization Bread for the World, said: “As a fiscal conservative, I am happy when there are conversations about transparency and efficiency, but to suggest that we have to shut down the entire system for that to take place is not only ludicrous. It’s incredibly dangerous.”

Saving lives, alleviating suffering where we can, is enough in itself for me. But there is much more at stake here, too. The core mission of USAID from its beginning in 1961 has been to extend American influence and enhance our national security. For sixty-four years USAID projects have sown good will around the world. Every product has an American flag and the label, “FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.” Our national security and prosperity are well served by this good will and these partnerships, and by the containment of diseases and the stability provided. Stability which lessens social upheaval, drug trafficking and desperate migration. This “soft power” has been a core part of American foreign policy for all this time. It has had strong bipartisan support and been considered a vital partner for our military.

It should come as no surprise then that Russia, Iran, and China are elated over what’s happening, and are already moving in to take advantage of the vacuum we’re leaving.

Americans voted for a shakeup, for a government more in line with their concerns. But if we knew what was happening here, the great majority, including a majority of those who voted for President Trump, would not be in favor of this. Neither, I believe, is there wide support for the complete hollowing out of the federal workforce that is in the works, the sacrifice of all that institutional knowledge and talent. Or the effort to fundamentally alter the checks and balances that have been a hallmark of our democracy.

The sudden shutdown of USAID is both immoral and incredibly short-sighted. And if as Americans we lose our ability to empathize, to imagine the experience of people other than ourselves and to care about one another … if as a country we turn away from the rest of the world, abandoning our role as a beacon of light and help and hope, then talk of American greatness will mean less than nothing.

Steve Bullington

Adrian, GA