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Giving Thanks in a Time of Concern

President's Blog: Giving Thanks in a Time of Concern

Let's be grateful for what we have in each other, in our students and colleagues, for the privilege of the work we are able to do each day in fulfilling the mission of this great learning enterprise we call Trinity.

At last, we come to the time of year when we step back from our busy routines to be with family, to catch up with those we have not seen for a while, to share a simple or elaborate meal depending on your preferences, maybe even to get a bit more sleep or to enjoy a day without work.  But even as we take time to share a joyful Thanksgiving 2024 with family and friends, our concerns lurk nearby.  Maybe we are dealing with illness or some sadness in the family.  Or we try to avoid the news but can’t resist sneaking a peek at those darn phones and suddenly we remember our worries — the election, the new cabinet, the awful threats of harm that might come, the wars abroad, the economic uncertainty.  Turn off the phone and have another piece of pie!!

Oprah’s quote above provides some wise advice for today and all days.  Giving thanks is not about being unrealistic or putting on a false front.  But it IS about the realization every single day that we always have something — a person, a talent, an event, a situation — for which we can be grateful.  We should not hoard our gratitude while waiting for some great big thing to move us — rather, we should spend every penny of our gratitude each day on the people and things that help us to live good lives for the sake of all the others in our lives.

On Thanksgiving and all the days of this holiday season, let’s take a step back from obsessing about our big worries, and instead, focus on the daily opportunities for gratitude.  I know what I’m grateful for, today and every day:  the wonderful community we have here at Trinity, our great students, devoted faculty, talented staff, hard-working colleagues, generous benefactors, wise trustees, terrific friends and partners in the community.  I’m grateful to have fulfilling work every day — even if that work entails sometimes dealing with complaints about elevators or grades or bills, or sometimes the hard work of stretching our thin budget a little farther.  I’m grateful to have this work because our work together at Trinity is truly transformative for the students we educate and the lives we change through the power of this education.

I’m always grateful to those courageous and visionary Sisters of Notre Dame who had the best idea ever in the founding of Trinity in 1897, and their successors who sustained this incredible institution across 12 decades.

I’m so grateful to colleagues who always go the extra ten miles for our students, creatively and patiently moving the processes forward for learning and discovery and mastery of advanced knowledge.

I could make this list even longer — you see, once you start thinking about gratitude, it multiplies many times over!  Try it, and you’ll see that thinking about gratitude leaves little time for concerns.

But speaking of concerns, let’s also renew our faith in our ability to get through this moment in American history.   Trinity brings many gifts to our nation, and the work of our graduates has been transformative for many communities.   Our work continues to be important and meaningful each day.  Let’s concentrate on what we are able to do, do it with excellence and commitment, and always with gratitude for the privilege of being part of this amazing learning enterprise.

Thanks to all, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Dr. Nicole Betschman, Public Health Leader, on RFK Jr. Nomination to HHS

President's Blog: Dr. Nicole Betschman, Public Health Leader, on RFK Jr. Nomination to HHS

Dr. Nicole Betschman, President of the D.C. Public Health Association and Public Health Program Leader at Trinity, points out that Washington D.C. has one of the highest rates of racial health disparities in the country, and that crisis is likely to get worse if common sense health protections like vaccines and fluoride and other health initiatives are eliminated by the new administration.

Dr. Nicole Betschman is Trinity’s Director of Public Health Programs and Assistant Professor in our School of Nursing and Health Professions.  Additionally, she is the President of the D.C. Public Health Association.  Following President-elect Trump’s announcement of the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Betschman gave an interview to NBC-4 in Washington, and she has also written this essay in response to the appointment:

Essay by Dr. Nicole Betschman on the Appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
as Secretary of Health and Human Services

A wise person once said never ask, “What could possibly happen next?” — that is the state that we are currently facing as we inch closer to inauguration day of a second term under a very radicalized administration.  The nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services is that ‘next’ that we, as a District and a country, are currently staring in the face — in the face of a possible increase of racial health disparities.  Many of us fighting for public health were in an utter state of disbelief after the election but now we are now in fight mode for public health and more advocacy for the entire country and specifically marginalized communities.   Washington D.C. relies on federal resources which could cause a major disruption in the number and types of services, such as the Affordable Care Act, Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Medicaid, that many Washingtonians and the county rely upon to stay healthy.

Now what?  Now we rally all public health advocates and start to brace for the ‘what ifs’ so that IF another public health crisis occurs, we act.  Washington D.C. has one of the highest rates of racial health disparities in the country with so many citizens who are disproportionately affected by diabetes hypertension, and maternal mortality — imagine what would happen if vital public health education initiatives are eliminated in Ward 7 and Ward 8 and other communities?

RFK Jr. has publicly criticized several public health initiatives, such as vaccinations and fluorination in the water, that have saved the lives of many.  Let us not forget about 12-year-old Deamonte Driver who tragically lost his life due to tooth decay and the loss of Medicaid services.  If RFK Jr. shifts or eliminates funding in any of the HHS agencies, I am afraid that the health inequities will increase even further in the Nation.

Trinity Washington University is a major social justice institution and each of us, students, faculty, and staff, have a responsibility to make a change.  Every major at this university can and will be impacted by this nomination and it is our duty as educators to provide the tools to the future educators, sociologists, psychologists, historians, scientists, political advisors, lawyers, health care professionals, social workers, and public health experts.

As President of the DC Public Health Association (DCPHA), along with my colleagues I am dedicated to protecting the personal, public, and environmental health in the District, but we cannot do it alone.  We must lean on institutions of higher education and other advocacy organizations and groups in the District to marshal all of our resources together for the health and wellness of all Washingtonians for these next 4 years.

Don’t Agonize, Organize!

President's Blog: Don’t Agonize, Organize!

If you don't like this year's election results, get involved! Resolve to work for change in the future! Bring your talents to bear on the needs of our communities and neighborhoods. Remember, the most important politics always start in your backyard!

Democracy had its way with us last week.  A majority of voters, about 76 million citizens, are surely satisfied with their choice of Donald J. Trump to return to the White House.  A minority of voters, about 72 million, are disappointed that their candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, lost the election.  Democracy is all about winners and losers; if our candidate loses, we can’t say that Democracy failed — in fact, it worked.  And, Churchill said, Democracy is the best option we have, all other forms of government considered.

But the 2024 election was not a typical election, and the real question for Democracy is not whether November 5, 2024 was a fair election — it was despite some critics wanting to say otherwise.  The real question we need to be concerned with is whether Democracy will survive a second Trump Administration, given the threats he and his cronies have made throughout the campaign.

President Trump, himself, said on numerous occasions that he “will be a dictator on Day One,” and he is on record as having told his rallies that this will be the last election ever in America.  He has said he will mobilize the military to deport as many as 20 million immigrants.  He has also said he will arrest journalists and other “enemies” who disagree with him.  His crony Elon Musk (the richest man in the world right now) is on record as supporting replacing Democracy with “high status alpha males” as the only people worthy of governance power.  Another seedy crony, Steve Bannon — recently released from jail after serving time for contempt of Congress — said that the new Trump administration would impose “rough Roman Justice” (whatever that means) on the Justice Department, the FBI, MSNBC and a host of other targets of his ire.

Will any of this really happen?  It’s a long road from rhetoric to reality.  Never forget that as much as President Trump promised to “build the wall” across the 2000-mile southern border (and have Mexico pay for it), the reality was that his administration replaced about 450 miles of prior barriers and built only about 50 miles of new barriers; he used money taken from the military budget to pay for his short fence.  The difference between threats and realities is many, many miles both literally and figuratively.

Trillions of pixels on computer screens (we used to cite barrels of ink, but who uses ink these days?) have been sacrificed by the commentariat dissecting what happened in the 2024 election.  Some of the commentaries are insightful, some are ridiculous, all seek to lay blame, assign responsibility, explain what is largely inexplicable.  Why so many millions of Americans chose Donald Trump with all of his known corruptions — a habitual liar, a convicted felon, a well known sexual abuser, twice impeached and known to have absconded with top secret documents now located in a basement bathroom at Mar-a-Lago — why he was more appealing to be our president than a competent, experienced candidate who happened to be a woman of color is something that the political wonks will debate for years to come.

I will not get drawn into the election analysis except to say this:  while deeply discounted by some pundits, I believe we simply cannot ignore the sexism and racism that courses beneath the surface of American politics.  Vice President Kamala Harris was the second highly talented woman to be rejected in ten years, joining Hillary Clinton in the dubious hall of losing presidential candidates who happen to be female.  I believe a woman will win in my lifetime (I’m getting older, so hurry up!), but against a more conventional candidate not named Trump.

Turning to the most important issues at hand:  how our students, faculty and staff at Trinity respond to the election and the new Trump Administration is a concern for all of us, and we must seize this moment to move forward together with purpose and confidence.  In a virtual town hall meeting last week, with more than 100 participants from our campus community, I heard repeated expressions of sadness, anger, fear, despair and deep concern about what will happen next.  All of these feelings are legitimate, and as we said in the forum, we must be present to each other to listen, support, talk through the options before us.

In the end, though, we cannot sit on the sidelines and sulk.  We must engage in the hard work of continuing to build good communities imbued with hope and justice for all.  It’s not up to President Trump — WE must seize this moment and act to make things right for our classmates and colleagues, for our families and friends, co-workers and neighbors.  We gain nothing by holding back; we have a lot to gain by moving forward, together.

Don’t agonize, organize!  That’s an old activist saying, but so true!  What does that mean?  In the weeks ahead, we’ll have opportunities for further campus discussion in large groups and small, but here are some examples:

– Education is the most powerful force we have to combat authoritarianism!  As Trinity Women have done for 125 years, let’s be absolutely excellent in our academic studies and intellectual attainment, and let’s bring that excellence to our communities in the cause of social justice.  We can and we must make a difference for others, as we have done through dozens of prior presidential administrations!

– All politics starts locally, and there are numerous local organizations that would welcome the engagement of Trinity students, faculty, staff, alumnae and families.  Consider getting involved here in D.C. with the local Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, or the education councils in the wards, or other community organizations.  Or maybe your church has a volunteer opportunity, or our local schools.  There are thousands of ways to get involved in your communities, and at a time like this, engagement with other concerned citizens doing good work for their communities has both healing power and the power to make good change.

– Speak out!  Don’t hold back, use the gifts of your Trinity education to write and speak — to Councilmembers, members of Congress, the White House and agencies.  If you are sitting at lunch saying, “Why don’t they….” go right that down and send it out.  Join the Trinity Times and write articles about topics of concern to you.  Create a blog on substack or medium, or write letters to the editors of papers and media sites.

– Give witness to your beliefs in group action — whether joining a women’s march, or marching in solidarity with labor, or participating in a Black Lives Matter program, or working with United We Dream or other immigrant rights groups, or demonstrating for gun control, or joining a teach-in on climate change, there are numerous ways in which you can be part of speaking your truth to power, be involved!

Finally, please tell me and our colleagues what’s on your mind, where you need help, what really worries you.  We want to provide the support and resources as much as we can to help you manage through this time of stress and uncertainty.

For our undocumented students, we are working with our immigration partners to develop additional resources to support you, and our team will provide more information in the coming weeks.

For students who are dealing with racial injustice, or discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation or nationality or religion or language, please tell us what you are experiencing so that we can develop good plans to help you.  Trinity is a safe space, you should feel that you can communicate with our administrative team and faculty in confidence and with privacy.

Together, we can and will make a difference!  Together we can keep moving forward toward our longstanding goal to make this nation “a more perfect union” despite today’s many political challenges.  Remember: a presidential term is just four years, and the pendulum is always swinging.  This election is hardly the end of the American Experiment; historians will look back on this moment as an awakening of new generations, perhaps an aberration, but also as a fulcrum to propel us forward toward an even stronger Democracy.  Yes, Democracy — it will prevail!

We Must Choose

President's Blog: We Must Choose

We may disagree vigorously with each candidate on certain issues. But voting is the price of admission to the table for the debate. Voting is essential for the health of our Democracy. Our obligation is to do our homework, research, the issues, weigh the impact on our nation, and then VOTE. WE MUST CHOOSE!

(photo credit)

The great, dramatic pageant of Democracy in Action 2024 unfolds its final act in the next few days, leading up to Election Day on Tuesday, November 5.  In a modern twist, millions of Americans have already voted thanks to the creation of early voting opportunities in many states.  I voted by mail in Maryland in early October.  In addition to electing the next president of the United States, voters will choose all members of the House of Representatives (they must be elected every two years) and many members of the U.S. Senate, along with numerous other public officials.

Voting is our most precious civic right and most important civic duty.  We must exercise our voting duties with great seriousness and a large sense of purpose for our nation.

Unfortunately, too many citizens do not vote.  The large volume of non-voters has a clear outcome on the results of elections.  In the last 25 years, many national elections have come down to a few thousand votes in a few precincts in a handful of states.  Imagine how more robust participation of the non-voters might have changed the results in, say, the 200o election where George W. Bush defeated Al Gore largely over a handful of votes in Florida and after the Supreme Court had to intervene.  A few thousand votes in a few states resulted in victory for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016.  Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by a larger margin in 2020, but not by that much.

Non-voters have a huge impact on elections, but not in a good way.

This year, I’ve heard some people say that they simply will not vote because while they don’t like one candidate’s vitriolic speeches and threats against Democracy, they also detest another candidate’s alliance with the Biden Administration on the issue of support for Israel while that nation wages a horrific war against Palestinians in Gaza and throughout the Middle East.

These issues are all legitimate.   What Israel is doing in Gaza is truly horrific, and I join those who think the Biden Administration must do far more to bring the killings to an end quickly, which might require suspending financial and military support to Israel.  Engaging the debates and protesting fiercely over the Middle East situation is everyone’s right.

But we must choose.  It’s not a noble stance to say that we want our political leaders to do something, but that we will not vote.  Voting is the price of admission to the table; opting-out leaves you outside.  Non-voting gains nothing, and it can often lead to an even more bitter national outcome.

We must choose.  Our obligation as citizens is to research ALL issues, not just one issue.  We must weigh what the long-term impact on our nation will be if one candidate or the other wins.

One candidate or the other will win.  Your failure to vote will not stop that outcome, but enough citizens failing to vote could cause an outcome that might undermine our very Democracy.   Voting is the ultimate exercise of Democracy; not voting is a rejection of Democracy.

We must choose.

One candidate says that those who disagree with them are enemies, that if elected president, they will use the military to hunt down and imprison dissenters.

Another candidate says that they will welcome those who disagree to the table, that the president must listen to everyone, even those who disagree.

We must choose.

One candidate says that they will deport hundreds of thousands of persons who came into this country seeking relief from violence and oppression in their home countries.  “It will be bloody,” that candidate said of the possibility of mass deportation.

The other candidate says that they will hold Congress accountable to fix immigration policy, to create fair and just methods for asylum seekers and those who want a pathway to citizenship.

We must choose.

One candidate speaks with pride of their appointment of Supreme Court justices who overturned a 50-year-old legal precedent protecting a woman’s right to make her own reproductive decisions in the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship.

One candidate says they will work with Congress to ensure restoration of women’s rights completely.

We must choose.

Even Pope Francis finds the voting choice challenging, but in September he reinforced the necessity of voting.  He spoke of the problem of one candidate treating immigrants so badly, and the other candidate supporting abortion rights.  “In political morality, in general they say that if you don’t vote, it’s not good, it’s bad. You have to vote, and you have to choose the lesser evil. What is the lesser evil? That woman, or that man? I don’t know. Each one, in their conscience, must think,” he said.

Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory further illuminated the Pope’s message in an interview with the Catholic news outlet Crux.  When asked if Catholics could vote for a pro-choice candidate, he replied:

“If you isolate it in those terms, does that mean you dispense with voting for someone who denigrates immigrants, who promotes capital punishment?  In other words: yes, it is foundational, the dignity of unborn life; but does it dispense with all of the other awful proposals that are out there? Can I sleep saying I didn’t vote for this person because of their position on abortion, but I’ll ignore the other issues that also fall under the umbrella of the dignity of human life? Whether it be the issue of racism, whether it be the issue of economic disparity, all of those things – I’ll close my eyes to all of the others because of this one issue? We have to say, look, it’s foundational, it’s the first moment of human dignity, but it’s not the last.”

Like the Pope, the Cardinal reiterated that no political candidate gets a 100% perfect score on moral issues.

We must choose.

We are free to agree or disagree with any candidate on any issue.  We can and we must engage the debate with knowledge, research, weighing the likely outcomes for our nation and way of life.  And after all of that research and consideration, we have one clear duty:  VOTE!

WE MUST CHOOSE.

Democracy Dies in Deceit

President's Blog: Democracy Dies in Deceit

Jeff Bezos purchased a newspaper, but he could not purchase Freedom of the Press. His obligation as the owner of the Washington Post is to protect and uphold that fundamental right, not repress it.

Jeff Bezos may have purchased the Washington Post in 2013, but there was something he could not buy:  freedom of the press.  In taking ownership of the great newspaper in the nation’s capitol, we might have assumed that this billionaire understood his obligation to respect and protect freedom of the press, to uphold the highest journalistic standards for the Washington Post, to refrain from any interference with news coverage or editorial positions.

Unfortuately, Mr. Bezos has now apparently breached his most fundamental obligation to protect freedom of the press from any undue pressures or outside influences.  Instead, he unilaterally intervened to veto the decision of the Editorial Board to issue an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president.  His intervention is a deceitful betrayal of the obligations he assumed when he bought the newspaper to make it his first and foremost role to be the guardian of the free press.

There are reports that his decision was influenced by the fact that he has huge business interests before the government (Amazon, the space exploration company Blue Origin, among others) and he did not want to risk alienating someone who might be the future president, i.e., Donald Trump.  I have no idea if these reports are true, but the appearance of a profound conflict of interest motivating his repressive decision is out there,

Mr. Bezos is not the only wealthy titan trying to control the free press.  Another billionaire, Patrick Soon Shiong, similarly blocked a Harris endorsement by the paper he owns, the LA Times.  We are seeing billionaires try to control social media — Elon Must with X (still Twitter for many of us!), Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook and Instagram,   It’s true that very wealthy people have owned major media outlets before — the Ochs-Sulzberger family for the New York Times, the Meyers and then the Grahams for the Washington Post.  Those owners were well known for their courage in defending the free press against governmental interference.  Katharine Graham became a legend when she allowed her young reporters Woodward and Bernstein to report on the Watergate scandal even in the face of intense pressure from President Richard Nixon.  The Washington Post has fallen far and hard from those remarkable days of courageous free journalism.

Thomas Jefferson famously wrote that,  “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Mr. Bezos and other wealthy people who own media outlets would do well to study American history and remember the importance of the free press in the formation of this republic.  Newspapers, including the Washington Post, act in service to WE THE PEOPLE, not to the government or any particular president or public official.

By repressing the right of the Washington Post editorial board to make an endorsement, Mr. Bezos has betrayed the Jeffersonian principle of the free press.  He should retract his decision and respect the decisions of the journalists who are the heart and soul of a great newspaper.

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