My Life Is The Same

Editor,

As one of the writers I read put it, life is not remarkably different for me. This after the election of the 45th President for a second term, after his finding the way to become the 47th President.I have Medicare and SSI for retirement and some teacher’s retirement. My partner also has similar safety net income. We are the product of the golden age. We are white (major factor) and old (less of a factor). A few white and old people have been arrested for protesting, notably veterans, but they have not been whisked away and disappeared. So, our life goes on.

What is different for us is the undeniable heart-wrench fear of what is around the corner. Our families are now a mixture of Latino heritage, gay and transgender relatives. What is the same is our friends, who are the same heritage of Black, Latino, Filipino, and other ethnic groups , such as Vietnamese and Hmong, that we have always had, wherever we have lived. Here in the mountains, in our town, it is mostly white European neighbors.Even here, there is fear. Who will be targeted by ICE or U.S.Customs and Border Protection? Following rules is not protection. Who will help ifthey come? If one is not white, the odds go up on detention, no matter the citizenship status.

I take my walks. I go to my medical appointments, which are covered for now. I don’t fear for myself. I fear for my family and friends. My family who need to use SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program aka food stamps). Do we help them? Yes, we do. Is it enough? No, it is not. I wonder if there are others who are in a similar situation. I fear for my friends who make calls in a panic because there is rumor of ICE in the area. It is not just the fear, but the way fear is such a large part of our lives now. To prepare for a fire, flood, earthquake, natural disaster is minimized because of the all encompassing and over-arching fear always present, even in the lighter moments. I guess my life has changed. I follow with much more seriousness all the political activities morethan I used to.

Too many of my neighbors voted for this, the “back door to make SSI privatized,” (claimed by Scott Bessent, US Secretary of the Treasury) by using babies to set up money accounts to start the back door plan, the cutting of Medicaid and Medicare already leading to closing of rural hospitals and clinics, the firing of the messenger because the downturn of the labor statistics was not pleasing to the WH golfer, the statement that states are on their own when any disaster hits.

Good Lord, save us,

Linda Guffin

Downieville