Keeping Score Locally

When the National Impacts the Local, part 2

This week I’m continuing to interrupt regular programming to share an update on the previous post on the local impacts of national policies on the federal workforce, farming, LGBTQ+ folks, and a bonus Mayor’s Tale.

A frosty January morning 📷 John Lovie

Federal Workforce

I sent another “please don't quit, we need you” email to a Federal Government employee friend, this one at the Pentagon. Her reply:

Thank you, John. Your email means the world. So far, we’re hanging in there and the team is still doing the work. Our service is important to us. Thanks again!

I talked to two more Federal employee friends in person in the past week. One works for USAID. His job is to extricate staff who need help - medical, say, or personal security - while serving overseas. Now they are letting go staff around the world and putting them in those situations. People they serve are already dying as treatments stop. He’s expecting to be out of job in 30 days.

Another works for NOAA Fisheries, supporting Alaska, and is unsure if he'll sail again.

Probationary staff at EPA have been let go, as they have at many other agencies. That’s a whole cohort who have been recruited and trained. A waste. In general, my federal employee friends are much more active on social media than they ever were. The mood is shifting to one of defiance.

We’re still waiting to find out how the cuts at EPA are going to affect our drinking water consolidation, PFAS testing, and Puget Sound recovery projects. Meanwhile, next in the DOGE crosshairs is HUD - Housing and Urban Development, with our local affordable housing projects now at risk.

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Farming

Local farmer friend Georgie Smith had this post deservedly go viral last week: The Devastating Impact of Trump 2.0 on U.S. Farmers. She writes:

Folks, it's taken a few days to trickle down, but I'm seeing post after post after post in the ag community social media channels of massive issues impacting U.S. farmers and the U.S. ag economy from Trump's DOGE efforts, tariff wars and the USAID shutdown.

In a follow up post: No Relief Yet - It's Getting Worse - for U.S. Farmers Pummeled Under Trump 2.0 she adds.

I wish I could say things were looking up for U.S. agriculture since the news first came out that many U.S. farmers have been negatively impacted by the multiplying impact of Trump’s DOGE funding freezes, agency pauses (and outright dismanting) and tariff posturing.

But unfortunately, that’s not been the case. At least not when I sat down to write this. Instead, starting this past Thursday DOGE took aim at the United States Department of Agriculture, aka the USDA, firing ‘probationary’ employees in what has been described as a “blood bath” of terminations.

Georgie lists several programs at USDA that have suffered, to which I'd add USDA Rural Development. One of USDA RD’s signature achievements has been the rollout of rural broadband, which Musk's Starlink sees as a competitor.

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LGBTQ+

Last Saturday, we went to hear a friend's band. In the audience of maybe a hundred at this local joint were two friends, one with a son, the other with a daughter, who have transitioned. On asking the parents how the kids are doing, I heard "thankful they live in Washington State." Here's why:

Sex Designation Change on a Birth Certificate | Washington State Department of Health

We are currently processing requests in three (3) business days. Please allow up to two (2) weeks for delivery and mail time for ordered certificates.

People who were born in Washington state can change the sex designation on their birth certificate by submitting a completed request form to the Washington State Department of Health Center for Health Statistics. A Washington State birth certificate has three options for sex designation: M, F, and X.

“X” refers to a gender that is not exclusively male or female – including, but not limited to, intersex, agender, amalgagender, androgynous, bigender, demigender, female-to-male, genderfluid, genderqueer, male-to-female, neutrois, nonbinary, pangender, third sex, transgender, transsexual, Two Spirit, and unspecified. WAC 246-490-075 added “X” as a third sex designation option.

I can think of half a dozen more trans people who I know on our island, and many queer folks, including family members. They exist. They will not be erased.

A dusting of snow in the park. 📷 John Lovie

A Mayor’s Tale

The shenanigans around the current mayor of New York remind me of an episode from almost twenty years ago, when some things were very different and some exactly the same.

In 2006, before we moved to Washington, we were living in New Jersey. My wife is a former competitive ice skater and costume designer and was drafted onto the board of a charity organization called Figure Skating in Harlem, a homework and mentoring program disguised as a figure skating program. As her contribution, she volunteered to make skating dresses for their annual gala. Many hours working late in the basement, we delivered the one hundred and fifty dresses and, a few weeks later, got to see them on the ice.

The gala was held at the Wollman Rink in New York's Central Park, run at the time by the Trump Organization. Board members used their connections to attract members of New York's rich and famous as well as skating stars past and present. While we were milling around during the cocktail hour, DJT arrived, dressed like a Mafia don, with an entourage consisting of Melania, Terry Lundgren of Macy's and his wife, and a group of bodyguards. My then twelve-year-old stepdaughter called out to him "Mr Trump, can I get a photograph?" He duly posed for a photograph with her.

When the time came to watch the skating, I took a seat next to an older Black couple, I thought perhaps grandparents of one of the kids in the program. I asked the husband what he thought of the skating.

"It's OK, but I'd rather be watching tennis," he said. That should have been a hint, but I missed it.

"I'm John," I offered.

"I'm Dave," he replied, "Dave Dinkins, I used to be mayor of New York. And this is my wife, Joyce."

David Dinkins was a huge tennis fan. He and Joyce were married for almost 70 years. Serving between Ed Koch and Rudi Giuliani, Dinkins got too little credit for the beginning the turnaround of the City from the Koch years.

Shortly afterwards, DJT got up to give a speech. As he was bragging about how the city couldn't do it but he saved the rink, omitting to mention that he did so by stiffing the contractor, my neighbor was muttering and cursing under his breath.

We attended the gala again the following year. Again, DJT arrived with his entourage, and again my stepdaughter asked him for a photograph.

This time, a bodyguard elbowed her out of the way. Some things never change.

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