To make America great again, as Mr. Trump keeps promising, shouldn’t we start in our own communities? We realize that all of America’s communities are unique and have different notions of what greatness means. But isn’t there a very definitive set of values and pursuits that fit under the banner of “We, the people?” Isn’t it a belief in freedoms, rights and responsibilities that unites the alt-liberals of northern California (most of us) with the poor working class of coal country West Virginia?
We weren’t quite sure what Mr. Trump meant by “great again” during his presidential campaign. But if his budget blueprint is any indication of what he really meant then all of America’s communities face real setbacks.
In Healdsburg, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cloverdale, Windsor, New York, Kansas or Sebastopol, isn’t America Greatness defined the same way?
In all those places isn’t a sign of greatness how well we care for our elderly, young children and the less fortunate? Aren’t the greatest American communities — no matter their size — where local businesses thrive and creativity is celebrated? Where laws and liberties are equally observed? Wherever “proud to be an American” has the most different answers, isn’t that where our hard-won greatness truly flourishes?
Trump’s budget would cut our local seniors’ Meals on Wheels program and all funding for Planned Parenthood. The new regime in Washington, D.C. wants to gut clean air, water and environmental protections. It is threatening to defund arts, humanities, basic science and medical research and public media endowments. How is that great?
The “repeal and replace” of Obamacare now includes taking health insurance coverage away from 24 million Americans, shrinking Medicaid and handing billions in income tax cuts to the super-wealthy.
Make no mistake, this president aims to take America in a new direction. And, last we clicked our Google Map, Sonoma County was still part of the United States.
Trump’s budget threatens delivery of 260,000 meals on wheels to our county’s fixed-income and shut-in elderly. Proposed cuts to the EPA would jeopardize salmon restoration, clean energy and water infrastructure programs here.
Proposals to eliminate federal block grants would take $3 million away from local affordable housing, senior centers, homeless shelters, disability access projects and legal aid for the poor.
Our KRCB public media would lose $550,000, or 20 percent of its operating budget, because non-partisan and community-based news does not fit Trump’s definition of “great.”
Even the Healdsburg Jazz Festival and other arts programs would be impacted by the Trump budget because they receive National Endowment for the Arts grants.
Too bad Sonoma County is not home to major military industry contractors, because the Trump budget seeks to increase U.S. military spending by $54 billion. Where the arts, humanities and public media portion of the federal budget is .016 percent ($741 million), the Pentagon’s share is more than half of all federal discretionary spending ($598 billion.)
If Sonoma County could score a contract to build a single F-35 fighter jet, it would add $120 million to the local economy. For extra reference, the cost overrun on the Lockheed-Martin F-35 to date has been $163 billion. That’s enough government waste to fund over 200 years of federal arts and humanities grants.
What’s not so great about this picture?
To be clear, we think Sonoma County is already great without building a fighter jet or other weapons. Besides our great climate, natural beauty and great agrarian heritage, we think our local government, schools and community partnerships are great, too. All deserve continued federal funding.
America’s new president is forcing all of us to debate and define various fake, alternative or true meanings of greatness.
Why don’t we try the one that is printed on our coins? “E pluribus unum” — out of many, one.
