Eyes Open to Facts

Let me begin by recognizing the wonderful volunteers who make BPNN what it is. You are more special than words can describe and what you do is literally changing the world around you. Thank you during Volunteer Appreciation Week, and always. Please never doubt that what you do is important. And it is appreciated by your community.

Now, to a less pleasant subject. We promise kindness to those who disagree with us. We pledge civility. It is proper that we do. I often praise these virtues in my monthly message. In a divided world, we must find a way to get along with others. That doesn’t mean ignoring facts. Kindness and truth are not enemies. Civility and consciousness co-exist.

The truth is that we as a society are consciously doing less for those in need. Our government speaks for us. It always has, for good or ill. Cuts in government spending focus disproportionately on the poor, the sick, and the elderly. Up to 10,000 jobs are being cut from health agencies, like National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Boston Globe) Everyone at the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program was terminated on April 1. (Department of Government Efficiency) That program provides millions of poor people with financial assistance for home heating and cooling bills. In Poverty, By America, Matthew Desmond, the former Chair of the Ford Foundation (no bleeding-heart bastion) analyzed how increasing poverty is the foreseeable consequence of our economic system, which promotes the wealthy getting wealthier and the poor getting poorer.

These are not political talking points. These are facts. It is also a fact that waste and inefficiency plague all bureaucracies and must be addressed. Some people get assistance when they shouldn’t. Some cheat the system. Many good people suffer from attempts to root out waste.

These are not merely national statistics. Governmental cuts affect Dane County. They affect us all. At BPNN, we have seen an increase in costs as less free food is available. $11 billion in grants to state and local health departments were eliminated. Our public health partners have dramatically scaled back vaccine clinics at BPNN - especially for uninsured adults. Twenty-five percent of the workforce of the Department of Health and Human Services was cut. (NY Times) On March 24, a $1.8 million grant for Public Health for Madison and Dane County was cut. Three staff were terminated. (Madison.com) (Full disclosure: the grant was up for renewal in June with no promise of continuing, but three months of service was lost.)

In 2022, before recent events, 9.2% of all people in Dane County and 12.6% of children were food insecure. (The USDA defines “food insecurity” as limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.) We expect things to get worse. In March, USDA terminated the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, which provided fresh produce to our BPNN Pantry guests and supported local farmers.

A White House memo revealed plans to eliminate approximately one-third of the federal health budget. (CNN) Plans call for slashing of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget by more than 40%, eliminating 19 of its 27 institutes. (Washington Post) The Administration has eliminated the entire Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) that set poverty guidelines, determining eligibility for Medicaid, food assistance, child care, and other services for the poor. (KFF Health News) Current poverty levels are $15,650 for a single person and $32,150 for a family of four. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was gutted, with 1,500 of its 1,700 employees laid off. (NY Times) One function of the CFPB was to prevent predatory lending to the poor.

I am sometimes conflicted when I urge understanding and civility in a world that is becoming increasingly mean. When do empathy and respect become surrender to injustice, or worse, acquiescence?

What’s the point? We decide what we will do as individuals and what matters most to us. We determine what we are comfortable having our government do in our name. We must do so based on facts, not political slogans or partisan dogma.

Ultimately, people must step up to take the place of what government once did because government is not doing it any more. We must do it because it is the right thing to do and because the lives of human beings are in the balance. The poor among us suffer. They grow desperate and their children go hungry. Now, more than ever, it is our privilege to help humanity. Pitch in. It has never been more important.