*** “I’m not sure how many “sins” I would recognize in the world. Some would surely be defused by changed circumstances. But I can imagine none that is more irresponsibly sinful than the betrayal, the exploitation, of the young by those who should care for them.” [ Elizabeth Janeway ]
“Even with ICE’s departure, damage to kids is already done”
[ Laura Yuen; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/13/26]
“From bus stops to classrooms, fear is dismantling our children’s education”. [ Sondra Samuels on behalf of “Educational Partnership Coalition”; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/3/26]
*** “The greater a child’s terror, and the earlier it is experienced, the harder it becomes to develop a strong and healthy sense of self.” [ Nathaniel Branden ]
This post is the 15th in a series describing to YOU the massive damage INTENTIONALLY done to the people of Minnesota by the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s militarized ICE occupation. The worst damage of all is likely to be to our children. Few of them will. EVER forget what they have seen, heard, experienced at the hands of ICE.
American children and youth, growing up since 1999 have had their innocence taken away, mostly by adults. School shootings and drills; social media addiction; A.I. attacks, especially on girls; ICE terrorism. We are fortunate that ANY of them are “normal.”
***. “People raised in love see things differently than those raised on survival.” [ Joy Marino ]
A] “Even with ICE’s departure, damaged to kids is already done”
3] “Repeated exposure to ..[trauma].. can change how kid’s brains develop, while increasing risks for chronic health problems, mental illness and substance abuse. Known as adverse childhood experiences, ghat bucket of trauma typically refers to things like neglect and abuse but is rapidly to include the pervasive of deportation. Toxic stress in childhood can lead to higher rates of physical conditions such as heart disease, cancer and obesity.”
11] “One thing is certain, though. Trauma has changed these kids. They will never forget, and neither will we.”
4] ” even if their parents are not detained, just the fear of that, or witnessing groups of masked, armed individuals patrolling your schools, neighborhoods and shops. – i wold classify that as an adverse childhood experience..”
10] “The couple has been here for more than two decades and has a pending application for permanent residency; their daughters are U.S. citizens. They should not have to live in terror.”
*** “In the history of mankind, fanaticism has caused more harm than vice.” [ Louis Kronenberger ]
1] “The hardest part about being locked up in his own home, says Fermin, is seeing his daughters cry.”
2]. “Thousands of children are staying home from school. They’re not socializing with friends, a development must. They’re skipping sports and other activities. In essence, they’re losing pieces of their childhood.”
5]. “We learned during COVID-19 how disastrous social isolation could be for our kids, with rates of depression and anxiety symptoms doubling during the pandemic. Still, most kids could could leave their homes to go for a walk. That isn’t the case for children in hiding.”
6] “Being holed up in a house does something to people,” said Taylor. “Kids are not getting a break. When you don’t know if someone or some entity is going to get you or your family, that’s a lot of anxiety to be holding.”
7] “Aside from the isolation, let’s not forget about the other purpose of school; learning. The deepening educational disparities are disproportionally hitting English-language learners snd other kids who can least afford to be missing school.”
8] “Struss is a member of several “moms groups” that have been problem-solving since the start of Operation Metro Surge. Every day, calls go out asking for cash to pay for kids’ clothing and rent money. So far, those needs have been met.”
9] “..districts that have been targeted by immigration agents report that kids are terrified and adults are exhausted. Tracy Xiong, a social worker for Columbia Heights schools – where several detained children, including Liam Conejo Ramos, attend. – told reporters last week that her job has changed drastically. Instead of asking for her help to navigate friendships, students ask how to cope with ICE breaking up famiies and taking away their friends.”
*** “A man of cruelty is God’s enemy.” [ Thomas Fuller ]
B] “From bus stops to classrooms, fear is dismantling our children’s education”
1]. “Research confirms that toxic stress interrupts development and harms a child’s health. Evidence shows that these adverse childhood experiences directly dismantle a student’s ability to learn. Our coalition warns that this operation has crossed a line: It is disrupting the educational system we have worked so hard to rebuild.”
***. “The roots of a child’s ability to cope and thrive, regardless of circumstances, lie in that child’s having had at least a small, safe place… in which, in the companionship of a loving person, that child could discover that he or she was lovable and capable of loving in return.” [ Fred Rogers ]
Tag: education
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXIII – Undermining America’s. Community. Colleges
***. “In public affairs, stupidity is more dangerous than knavery.” [ Woodrow Wilson, 28th U.S. President ]
14] “Local economies throughout the country couldn’t thrive without them. Community colleges, in all their diversity and inclusion, were the hubs of economic mobility. As Gavin put it, “We are situated more than any other institution in America to deliver on the promises in our original founding documents that everybody deserves a good life.”
8] “The Trump administration was slashing federal funding to a host of programs designed to support first-generation and low-income students, the sort of upward-mobility, American-dream work done by community colleges.” {Ben Austen: “Hitting Close to Home”; New York Times Magazine; 8/17/25]
STUPIDITY – the Trump DICTATORSHIP is full of it. IGNORANCE is part of it. Reckless pursuit of IDEOLOGICAL. GOALS is a BIG part of it. In evaluating Trump Stupidity – ask YOURSELF – would the Chinese, or Canadians, or West Europeans, or Japanese, or Australia and New Zealand. do this???
THEN – think on the Constitution’s Preamble”s goals for ANY American government: “..a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility….promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty..” How does Trump rhetoric, executive orders, actions – achieve ‘..to promote the general Welfare..”?????
We continue with “Hitting Close to Home…President Trump’s war on higher education was meant to punish elite schools – but the nation’s 1,100 community colleges are suffering some of the worst collateral damage.” [Ben Austen; New York Times Magazine; 8/17/25]:
1] ‘..the country’s 1,100 community colleges, which educate about 6.4 million undergraduates each year – roughly 40 percent of the national total and more than twice as many as are enrolled at every highly selective college and university in the country combined.”
2] “..the “dear colleague letter the Department of Education sent to every postsecondary school in the country in February, accusing the colleges of breaking civil rights law each time they considered race when making decisions about hiring, scholarships, classes or any aspect of campus life. The letter insisted that the schools had only days to comply or else.”
3]. ‘..the ways the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill will hit their schools in the near term and in the years ahead: the cascading effects of federal Medicaid reductions, which will force states to shoulder more of the financial burden and use up discretionary funding meant for their schools; the possible end of free community-college tuition…”
4] “Across the United States, community colleges have come to serve as the work-force-development arms of their local economies….It acted as a bridge to bring more women, racial minorities, immigrants, and first-generation college students into higher ed and the skilled work force….Like other community colleges, Durham Tech partnered with all sorts of employers, figuring their exact labor needs, and offered students customized training for those jobs.”
*** “The wise man takes pleasure in what is honorable, but the fool is not vexed by shamefulness.” [ Plutarch ]
5] “The Trump administration’s message is: Get on board or get out of the way,” Scott Yenor, a fellow at the Claremont Institute..”
***. “There is no possibility I have made a mistake.” [ Adolf Hitler ]
6] “..federal grants had also been axed at other big science and technology employers in the Triangle region, threatening not just college campuses but also the entire local research economy.”……”Employers are telling us we’ve got a shortage of qualified workers,’ he said. “We need to find more women.”….. Buxton said that the Bulls Academy, by targeting students of color for jobs earning upward of $45,000 a year, was also supporting the region’s big pharma company and the local economy.” [ read this again]
7] “Proposed cuts to the Department of Education budget would eliminate most funding for English-as-a-second-language classes. In California, nearly 300,000 students took free noncredit English-learner language classes at state community colleges……In a survey of Durham Tech students last year, 42 percent said they were the first in their families to attend college..” [do we know, for sure, WHO will be the next Einstein???]
9] “The Trump administration announced..it would seek to end funding of TRIO grants for students who. were the first in their families to pursue a college degree, calling the program dating back to the 1960s. “a relic of the past.”….The Trump administration had also cut staff in half both at the Department of Education, which historically managed thr country’s enormous portfolio of student loans…”
10] “The Republican spending bill initially proposed gutting funding for federal Pell grants, which helped low-income students pay for college, and limiting access to these grants for part-time and working students – the very definition of most people attending community college. After much lobbying and pleading from community-college advocates in red states as well as blue, warning of a coming catastrophe, Republicans in congress removed those provisions..”
***. “Fanatics have their dreams, wherewith they weave a paradise for a sect.” [ John Keats ]
11] “The Trump administration talked about expanding manufacturing at home. But across the country, 400,000 factory jobs were currently vacant. “That’s what’s so crazy about this,” I was told by another community college leader who asked not to be identified, out of fear of retaliation..” [dictatorships operate in an atmosphere of fear]
12] “Get care at a local hospital, or prepped for surgery at a hospital, or treated after an accident, or have someone come to your home to do repairs – “those are all community college grads, all of them,” the community college leader told me. “This collateral damage is going to end up being regional economic damage.” [shall we slit our throats together???}
13] “…Republicans in Congress were voting to defund NPR and PBS, potentially decimating the public broadcasting station that Delta housed on its campus, a service it had provided the wider Saginaw community, including its rural parts, since 1964.” [ telling the truth is not what a dictatorship wants – see Russia, China, Iran, North Korea…]
*** “The most delusional fantasies can be made to masquerade as sanity if you’ve got the political power to reinforce them.” [ Penny Skillman ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXXI – Long Term Damage to Health and Science
***** “Where there is no vision, the people suffer.” [ Proverbs. 29:18 ]
As the STUPIDITY, and DESTRUCTIVENESS of Trump policies becomes more evident, Americans are beginning to speak out. Here are just four examples of how Trump policies do NOT. “..promote the general Welfare..”, now, and even worse, for OUR future, which Trump is sabotaging. All of this being done to provide tax cuts for billionaires.
1]. “Economists: Trump science policies pose long-term risk…They say U.S. could lose edge by cutting federal support for research” [Ben Casselman; New York Times; 4/1/25]: “..ask economists which of the administration’s policies they are most concerned about, and many point to cuts to federal support for scientific research.”………
“To economists, the policies threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, and leave Americans..poorer, less healthy and less productive in the decades ahead.. “Universities are tremendously important engines of innovation.. This is really killing the goose that lays the golden egg.”
*** “If you have an opportunity to make things better and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on this earth.”
[ Roberto Clemente ]
2]. “EPA set to end power plant emissions limits”. [Tobi Raji; Washington Post; 5/26/25]: “In its draft, tghre agency argued..carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power plants that burn fossil fuels “do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution” or climate change..” [!!!!!!!!NOTE: power plants WERE responsible for about 25% of U.S. greenhouse emissions in 2022!!!!! – did the Trump administration flunk high school math & science?]
*****. “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” [ Lenin ]
3] “Public health system has been eroded by HHS cuts” [Laura Ungar, Michelle Smith; Associated Press; 6/1/25]: “Americans are losing a vast array of people and programs dedicated to keeping them healthy…State and local health departments…are being hollowed out…The Trump administration is cutting health spending on an unprecedented scale…at a time when the nation faces the deadliest measles outbreak..rising whooping cough cases and the risk bird flu could spread widely among people. The moves reflect a shift..Americans may not fully realize, away from the very idea of public health..one of the most critical responsibilities of government..”
***** “Health is the first of all liberties.” [ Henri Amiel ]
***** “Health..is the first and greatest of all blessings.” [ Lord Chesterfield ]
***** “Health is by far the most important element in human happiness.” [ Arthur Schopenhauer ]
***** “The first wealth is health.” [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
4] “Funding Cuts Are a ‘Gut Punch’ for STEM Research” [Katrina Miller; New York Times; 5/25/25]: “STEM education resarch focuses on improving how students, from preschool to university, are trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics….Experts in thre field saw the grant cancellations as part of a broader attack on education….it often took a decade or more of training for scientists to meaningfully contribute to cutting-edge programs. “Reducing the quality of the training can’t possibly be good for society,’ he said.” [ QUESTION: WHY would a modern, advanced, civilized society need citizens trained in science, technology, engineering and math. – OR – is there ANY. LOGICAL. REASON. why such a nation would NOT want these people?????????????????????????? ]
*****. “Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.” [ Goethe ]
[NOTE: We have a manilla envelope bulging with similar Trump STUPIDITIES on health alone from his first 4 months. And – remember WHY. Trump wants to make cuts in health, education, science. – to pay for billionaire’s tax cuts!!!!!!! How does damaging America’s public health system, and its training of scientists and engineers. “Make America Great Again” ???????????? America became a super power because of 20th century public health, public education, advances in science, engineering, math. YOU live better, longer, healthier because of those investments.]
*****. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” [ George Santayana ]
With Justice For All 