Musk visits misery upon Iowans

I am a father, a loving husband, and dedicated civil servant.

I am an oath of office to defend and protect the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic.

I am a work evaluation that reads “exceeds expectations." …

I am tired from weeks of being bullied and censored by billionaires.

I am tired of waking up every morning at 2 a.m. wondering how I am going to provide for my family if I lose my job.

I am tired of wiping away my wife’s tears and reassuring her that things will be OK for us and our growing little family that she's carrying.

Things are not OK. I am not OK …

— Brian Gibbs, former Park Ranger at Effigy Mounds National Monument, Marquette, Iowa.

On a cold, snowy, Valentine's Day Friday, Brian Gibbs, a dedicated worker at Effigy Mounds National Monument, discovered he was locked out of his work computer. He had been fired.

Brian said this was a low blow since his recent performance evaluation stated his work "exceeded expectations." There was no statement that his work or position was “inefficient,” “wasteful,” or “fraudulent.” Tara Kisner and her daughter Kailynn had Brian as their educator on a field trip with Oelwein Middle School just a few months prior.“ Brian was so amazing!” Tara said, “We learned so much from him and he was definitely dedicated to his job. Such sad news, and I'm sorry more people won't get the experience we had …”.

The purge of federal workers is happening across our nation, with many personal stories being told here in Iowa. The acts are being carried out through Elon Musk and his marauders. Musk is an unelected billionaire who donated hundreds of millions of dollars to help Donald Trump get elected President. His businesses have billions of dollars worth of contracts with the federal government.

Musk knows nothing of Brian Gibbs, of Effigy Mounds, of Northeast Iowa, or how parks need to be managed, yet he has been given the reins to run roughshod over places we hold dear and people who dedicate their lives so that we can enjoy them those places. Voters were never told before the election that Musk would be given the powers he now has to heartlessly take a wrecking ball to the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers.

Kate Giannini is a Program Manager at the Iowa Flood Center and Co-owner of Highland Hunting LLC in Riverside, Iowa.“ A $25 million grant meant to protect flood plains in partnership with private landowners now is paused,” says Giannini.“ Iowans who are frustrated by recent extreme flood disasters are seeing their efforts halted.” This is just one of many projects that have contracts with farmers, with existing funding authorized by Congress, but nonetheless are halted at the whims of the billionaire in chief.

Giannini says many of her friends in conservation, environment, climate, and agricultural fields have lost their jobs or are working with an overwhelming amount of uncertainty and stress.

Conservation programs already are extremely understaffed and struggle to keep up with demand from farmers and other Iowa landowners, yet some 38 employees from the Conservation Districts of Iowa recently were terminated. Giannini says, “Farmers will no longer receive the same level of support from agencies that were already stretched thin. We’ve worked so hard to make progress, but this setback could push us back decades. The full impact still is unfolding”.

What is the reason for these blanket firings? It’s not “government efficiency or worker fraud,” as I have heard of none of these people being told their work was inefficient, duplicative, fraudulent, or not in demand. It’s not to “tackle the deficit” — even if a fourth of all federal workers were canned immediately, spending would only be reduced by about 1 percent. Hiring private companies to do the work of federal workers typically is costlier. Trump’s planned tax cuts to billionaires and the most profitable large corporations will eclipse any savings from the losses of middle-class federal workers and the increase in unemployment.

The size of the federal workforce has remained pretty steady. According to U.S. Census data, the U.S. population was about 225 million in 1980, when the federal workforce stood at about 2.2 million. Today, the U.S. has more than 330 million residents and 2.4 million federal workers.

The most obvious answer to explain the Musk purge is corruption and self-interest by the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people. The end goal appears to allow billionaires and large corporations to get more tax breaks (or pay no income or corporate tax), pollute more, and make sure there are no government watchdogs to stop them from scamming and screwing the rest of us.

It’s time “the rest of us” collectively speak up!

Dan Cohen is a writer and photographer from Independence, Iowa. He retired as the Executive Director for the Buchanan County Conservation Board in 2023.