Then what?

Sitting idly by as our nation is stolen

My father was a wise man. He often cautioned me when I announced my intention do something he deemed a bit stupid. And believe me, there were lots of those occasions. Dad passed away when he was eighty-four years old. I was forty-seven. I was with him the night before he died at Hospice of the Cape Fear. The next morning, I was awakened by his nurse calling to tell me that he had just passed away at five-thirty a.m. While I was expecting it at any minute the day before, I was still shocked in a way that can only be understood by those who have lost a parent, even expectedly. I sat on the side of the bed and planned my day around the activities that usually accompany a loved one’s death. But for one fleeting moment, all his advice over the years came flooding back. What would he say at his own demise? What would he expect of me on this sad day? Normally a quiet man, I knew at that moment what words would have come from his mouth...and his heart.

It was a Monday morning, therefore the normal thing to do would be to call my office and let the departmental secretary know I’d not be in that day. But then I realized that it was too early in the morning for her to be in the office. And then I thought, “Why shouldn’t I go in today? Dad would have wanted it that way.”

So, I diligently showered and headed for the office at an unusually early time to teach my classes. I told each of the three classes I taught that day that my father had passed away a short time earlier and that I was “here today in his honor.” They were a bit dismayed and after a moment of head-scratching, my students seemed to understand. The subject I taught in those days was “Human Communication.” I thought, what better way to illustrate human commnication than to spend the time talking about exactly that subject, while on a more personal level. I’m glad I did. Years later, I did the same thing after learning of my mother’s death while she was in an assisted living facility here in Wilmington. She, too, would have wanted me to “carry on” as the British saying goes.

Back to my father. His often-repeated words of advice were posed in the form of a question which he asked of me. “Then what?” Those two words have guided me in so many decisions both before and after his death that I couldn’t begin to recount. “Then what?” is the question that should be asked in this perilous time of governing the three- hundred-forty-five million Americans who stand on the precipice of losing our nation. If we’ve ever needed this line of questioning, it is now.

When funding is pulled from the USAID, then what? Here’s what: Farmers’ crops in the Midwest go unsold and eventually we run out of storage causing them to rot in silos. Then what? Farmers lose their incentives to raise crops. Then what? Farmers lose their farms. Then what? Farmers become hungry. Then what? Families both here and worldwide are not fed. Then what? Farmers turn to the government to obtain sustenance. Then what? You know what...if there’s no government there to help.

When funding is pulled from the NIH, then what? Here’s what: Research into innovative drugs is removed. Then what? Already cash-strapped research universities receive no funding. Then what? Future doctors, scientists, chemists, biologists, are without an education to fulfill their dreams. Then what? Diseases go uncured. Then what? People die...lots of people. That’s what.

When funding is pulled from the CDC, then what? Here’s what: We cannot know when a terrible outbreak of measles or even avian flu may sweep through several states? Then what? Our children contract these diseases. Then what? Americans and children worldwide become sick and many die. Then what? We bury them but the diseases still ravage on uncontrolled.

When funding is pulled from the NOAA, then what? Here’s what: Ships at sea are left in dangerous waters without notifications on security, storms, piracy, and even air quality. Then what? Hurricanes are not predicted and their paths of destruction followed. Then what? People die. Then what? We bury them and wonder when the next storm will approach. People alive today don’t remember when the town of Galveston, Texas, was destroyed and somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 people died in an unnamed “Storm in 1900.”

And when a single person controls the FCC, then what? Here’s what: All electronic media are forced to report only what is deemed acceptable by the government. Then what? Journalism dies. Then what? Governments are taken over by “rogues.” Then what? Truth becomes “owned” by the wealthy and powerful. Then what? People are not warned that their own demise is assured by their lack of informative choices. Then what? People die.

And a further “then what?”

When funding is diverted from the FBI and CIA, then what? Here’s what: If your child is kidnapped, call the local sheriff’s department and see how quickly they post a missing person report that will circulate nationwide. When a fentanyl shipment causes the loss of lives in your community, ask the city cops to get to work in bringing down a nationwide drug ring. When a foreign dictatorship decides to undermine intelligence that could stop potentially World War III, call the local deputy to arrest the culprit. And further, when a school shooter’s plot is not uncovered soon enough to prevent the wholesale killing of our children, call Elon Musk and his band of “experienced” computer hackers to be sure the plot never unfolds. Not such a great situation in ANY of the cases.

These very consequences will work to destroy the America my father, his two brothers, his three half-brothers fought for in two major wars. My mother’s father and six of my mother’s seven brothers who served our country will have served for nothing. Three of my cousins who served in the Vietnam era will have put their lives on the line for nothing. And other members of my extended family who fought in two Gulf Wars and Afghanistan will have sacrificed their youths for nothing.

My dad’s question should be answered by all of us. “Then what?” should be the very first things on our minds as we enter the next few weeks of the disastrous consequences that could and WILL arise out of the current regime’s attempt at dismantling the America that has given generations of us so much over the centuries, and even in our personal lives, the means for a better life. The most pertinent question we can ask as we see our own survival as a nation is: “Then what.”