Before I get into the meat of today’s post, I must share a U.S. Postal Service incident. This might just be indicative of what’s wrong with our mail service today.

This afternoon, my sister took a large envelope to the post office for me along with my $20 bill. The postage was going to be $2.72. The clerk said she could not take the $20 bill as payment “because my computer says I don’t have change for it in my cash drawer.”

We will never know if the computer was correct. It seems like there should be a way for a postal clerk to open the drawer and see if the computer is correct. If the computer is correct, perhaps there should be a way for a postal clerk to get some cash from somewhere in the post office so he or she can sell a stamp and give a customer change for a $20 bill.

Without further ado, I will bring three things to your attention that are minor when taken alone; however, it is the relentless daily parade of such minor actions that are piling up.

Little-by-little, things are being done – or undone – behind the scenes. It feels like an out-of-control unraveling.

National Council on the Humanities

Trump has relieved 22 members of the 26-member National Council on the Humanities of their duties this week, leaving only four white men who were appointed by Trump. This council advises the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) about such things as grants to award.

The council was scheduled to meet next week “to submit nominations for the National Humanities Medal, consider three “sole source” grant applications and review statue proposals for Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes,” according to a report by The Washington Post.

Members of the council are appointed to serve six-year terms. Their only compensation is payment for travel and time spent in meetings.

The council needs a quorum of 14 to hold a meeting. Replacements must be approved by the U.S. Senate.

The acting chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Michael McDonald, informed members of the council in April that some NEA and NEH funds were being directed to Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes and the country’s semiquincentennial celebration in 2026.

Fewer grants than usual have been awarded since March; however, the agency’s largest ever grant of $10.4 million was awarded in September to Tikvah, “a think tank and education center that describes its mission as advancing ‘Jewish excellence and Western civilization through education and ideas,’” according to The Washington Post report.

What does this wholesale “firing” of nearly all members of the National Council on the Humanities mean for the future of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts?

Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home

The director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home as resigned because First Lady Melania Trump wanted to take one of President Eisenhower’s swords from the museum and give it to King Charles.

The Eisenhower Museum houses three of the World War II U.S. Army General’s swords: a Sword of Honor from the City of London in 1947, an honor saber from The Netherlands in 1947, and his West Point officer saber.

In the end, West Point supplied the First Lady with a replica saber and the Eisenhower Museum director resigned.

Is this part of the larger Trump Administration’s attack on museums? I don’t know what the First Lady’s motivation was in her request to the Eisenhower Museum. It seems a stretch to think she had personal knowledge of the holdings of the museum in Abilene, Kansas.

Federal support for charter schools instead of public schools

I don’t know if every state got new federal money for charter schools or if it was only North Carolina, but North Carolina received a $53 million grant for charter schools.

Just imagine how much could have been accomplished if the Trump Administration had awarded each of the 115 public school systems in North Carolina $460,869.56 instead of handing it to charter schools!

According to wunc.org, “U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced a $60 million increase in total funding for the Charter School Program Grant this fiscal year, making the announcement during National Charter Schools week this past May. It brings the department’s total investment into charter schools to more than $500 million over the next five years.”

The unc.org report also stated, “This additional federal investment in charter schools comes as the U.S. Department of Education has been rolling back competitive grants previously awarded under the Biden administration to public school districts. Notices from the department about revoked funding say that the grant projects do not fit the Trump administration’s priorities, often citing language in grant applications related to diversity, equity, inclusion or hiring practices that consider race.”

As if that weren’t bad enough, the North Carolina Legislature continues to pour tax money in the state budget to give vouchers to every family that wants to send their children to private school, even if they are wealthy and could do that without the vouchers.

This very public non-support of public education is taking us down a bad path. As long as the government does not support public education, the politicians can continue to criticize public schools and it will be a self-fulling prophecy.

In closing

It is getting increasingly more difficult to watch and listen to, but it is incumbent upon each American to pay attention.

It isn’t good for our mental health to concentrate on the news for hours on end every day, but if we all just turn off the news completely and refuse to keep up with what is being done – or undone – we will lose our democracy.

For as long as we have open and free elections, we each need to be informed about who we are voting for on all levels of government. If we do not make informed choices, we will cease to have open and free elections. We could go in the direction of Russia where they have elections but there is only one name on the ballot.

Meanwhile, the federal government shut down at midnight on Tuesday. I think the blame falls on the U.S. President; his hand-picked Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought (who helped write Project 2025); along with the Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress. None of them are upholding their oaths of office. None of them appear to take their jobs seriously and act on behalf of the American people.

This is an insane way to run a country. You can’t run a household like this, so why do they think they can operate the United States of America like this?

Janet