I smell paint

But, our unit had several ongoing serious problems that were looming that, perhaps, the commander was hoping could be covered over by a nice coat of paint. The idea of inhaling wet paint inside a building with no windows and wasting precious time with newbies we needed on the job made me reluctant, but I saluted smartly and got to work.

For three days we did cleanup work, leaving my newbies way behind in their training. When the general arrived, he walked into the main hallway with his entourage and said “I smell paint.”

Jan. 20 marked the inauguration of the new Republican administration and within days much of the federal government ground to a halt. On Jan. 27, all government “aid” was ordered to be frozen, carving out Medicare and Social Security as exceptions, with an official memorandum decrying “wokeness, Marxist equity, transgenderism, weaponization of government, and green new deal social engineering.” Chaos ensued, nationwide Medicaid provider portals suddenly went dark. After a federal judge issued a temporary injunction, the memo was rescinded, but across the entire government most real work has stopped while billions of pages of contracts, websites, regulations, grants and guidelines are searched for words and phrases including gender, sexuality, LGBTQ, women, race, carbon emissions, climate change, pronouns, HIV, equity, inclusion, diversity, they/them, reproductive health, non-binary and global warming. At the FBI Academy, a mural depicting the words Fairness, Diversity, Integrity, Respect, and Compassion was covered up with gray paint while hundreds of agents faced termination for having investigated Jan. 6 rioters.

Emails were sent to all federal employees, giving them until Feb. 6 to resign, retire or face termination. Implying they were slackers, they were encouraged to give up their “low productivity” government jobs for “higher productivity” private sector work. One of my dear friends used to think that government workers were lazy until he went to work for the Patent Office. He was stunned by how hard he had to work just to keep his head above water, let alone keep his job, and how hard everyone he encountered in Washington, D.C., seemed to be working. Speaking of productivity, how productive is it to place any employee who attended diversity training in the last year on paid leave, and to have all employees change their email signatures to remove pronouns? How productive is it to promise people who resign today that they’ll keep their pay and benefits until September without having to do any work? I wouldn’t trust that promise. 

Without a doubt, vast sums of money and time are being wasted on this graywashing and evisceration of the federal government, not to mention the impact on contractors, corporations, nonprofits and tens of millions of people whose work is in some way connected to the federal government, and the hundreds of millions of us who count on our government to do its job. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this tsunami of chaos, countless careers and lives shattered simply because good people chose the noble and often thankless cause of public service. 

So today, by order of the commander in chief, with nary a whisper from the Republican majorities in Congress, the entire federal government and all who are touched by it are painting things over, scrubbing out the words, people and ideas that Republicans think of as stains. In a few months, when the bloodletting is done, and those who offend right-wing sensibilities are all gone, whoever is left plus a whole bunch of newbies will be in charge. Will the wheels of government run more smoothly than ever? Will the country find itself more peaceful, healthy and prosperous? Will everything be “great?” Right now, too many vulnerable people are already suffering. So, folks everywhere right now are organizing, fighting back, going to court and making sure that, when the midterm elections do come, Americans will resoundingly say “I smell paint.” 

Do you or someone you love work for the federal government? Email craigwiesnerdj@gmail.com if you’d like to be interviewed about the impact these changes are having.

Craig Wiesner is the co-owner of Reach And Teach, a book, toy and cultural gift shop on San Carlos Avenue in San Carlos.