What I Think About What Other People Say (WITAWOPS)

This is my first opinion post on things I learned while at FEMA. Apologies to the States and Cities in advance. I do not believe that the mitigation grant program, the way you expect it, will be re-instated.  Despite the lawsuits, court decisions, supposed wins, and Congressional interest on the topic of FEMA’s mitigation grants, I think it’s over. Image by Freepix What Others Say For a backgrounder on this contentious topic, see this  article . Here are some of the recent headlines, all titled against FEMA. In one sentence, FEMA cut off funding. Multiple states sued FEMA in July 2025, “won” in December,  went back  to Court in February and “ won ” again in March (see the  summary  if its hard to keep track).   WA AG Brown wins case forcing FEMA to pay back millions in disaster funds --  Fox Headline , March 6, 2026 Washington and multistate coalition secure a victory preventing billions in cuts to disaster mitigation funding -- WA State Pres...

FEMA Out. 20 years of Federal Service Over. Wow. The week I left the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ended up being quite a week for FEMA and DHS! In retrospect, its been a 410-day roller coaster since January 20, 2025! Surprisingly, FEMA outlasted me. I incorrectly assumed that it would be erased the way USAID was — the place where I spent a decade of my professional life. See my earlier USAID obituary . But FEMA may still follow USAID into institutional grave, another victim of this administration. Disclaimer: the views expressed in this post are solely my own, published under my first amendment rights, and may not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Government or any of its current or former federal agencies.  Image generated by ChatGPT Two Decades of Service I'm out after serving the executive branch of my country of adoption for twenty years. First was a decade with the United States Agency of Interna...

For the fourth time (and the second time this year), I was privileged to be a part of a loved one’s transition from this worldly life and offer support to the family left behind. Being the intellectually curious person I am (and given this blog’s name), I found, in all four experiences, moments of distraction. Opportunities to set aside the realities of what all of us were feeling and experiencing and instead focus on individual articulations, faith, and actions.  Image by freepix.com Who and Where While only an infinitesimal fraction of what hospital staff, clergy, and many others have experienced, my four experiences constitute my entire universe. It’s all I have to go with. Three were in the U.S. Two were seniors (over 75) while the other two were under 40. One was Christian, the others Muslim. Three had long-term serious underlying causes; they had visibly suffered for most of the years that I had known them. All four passed in a hospital, under the care of experienced, profess...

Who doesn’t know Ghalib? He’s a good poet with a terrible reputation. Although there are other excellent poets, they say Ghalib excels them. All your life, O Ghalib, you repeated the same mistake: Your face was dirty, but you kept cleaning the mirror! Three different verses by Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869), loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Mirza Ghalib Yes, I was named for this legendary south asian poet who wrote in both urdu and farsi. I have his name, his books, and have visited the Ghalib Academy and adjacent Ghalib's mausoleum in New Delhi. I would often get asked to deliver my poetry, after my namesake. My retorts have always been that I don't write poetry out of respect for his greatness and I did not want him turning in his grave. Mirza Ghalib's portrait [Wikimedia Commons] But now, half a century later, I decided to give it a shot. Here is my very first poem (updated): The wheel. Yes, it is round, But still, it’s much more as I’ve found. Tending my g...

I live in King County, Washington. The county hosts the cities of Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond, along with 33 other incorporated cities and towns. Ask anyone. King obviously refers to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After all, its easy to find following type of comment: King County, Washington's largest county, is the first county in the nation to be named in honor of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), the celebrated civil rights leader and advocate of nonviolence.  We see his silhouette on our buses, our government buildings, and the county flag.  Image courtesy of freepik.com But wait a minute Think about this. The county pre-dated Dr. King. Therein lies the irony. For over a century and a half, our county was actually was named after a man who stood for everything Dr. King spent his life trying to dismantle. Yes, for sure. The county has been "King County" since it was created in 1852, When the Oregon Territorial Legislature carved out this land. They n...

I take on Bill Gates after a two month WITAWOPS hiatus, I checked the blog statistics and found that, surprisingly, it is active. I don’t know why the uptick in traffic this month (see the graph below), but you all have inspired me to start writing again. Lets talk about climate change. Which means I have to start with this: The views expressed are solely mine, published under my 1st amendment rights. They may not reflect the views of the U.S. Government or any of its past, present, or future agencies. Someone sent me Bill Gates’ recent (October) blog post, Three Tough Truths About Climate , in which he appears to argue that we should spend money on malaria and malnutrition and not on climate change. My gut reaction, before reading the post, was shock. Save people from malaria (which Gates and others have been fighting for decades now, in fact, the U.S. military has been conducting research on it in Kenya for over decades. See their latest post “ 20 years of Army research yields hope f...

WITAWOPS turned one year old. My first blog post on October 13, 2024,  You too can change the world  was a synopsis of my 2021 book reflecting on how I believe I changed the world in my own unique ways. This blog is contributing to that effort. I started WITAWOPS (What I Think About What Other People Say) because I had a lot of opinions about things people said. And I wanted to share them. Most posts reflect on a quote, discuss what I think, and end with why you should care. It’s been an interesting, eye-opening, and self-reflecting year. I’ve enjoyed [most] of it! What Do I Think 1. It’s harder than I thought.  I was asked how much time I spend on each post. About an hour writing and editing but more time during the week thinking. I've toyed with A.I. (see the post about  me vs. ChatGPT ). The week's topic has to jump out at me at some point before Friday and given that I really dislike procrastinating, I start getting antsy if I don’t have a topic by Thursday ...

We live in a state with rules and those rules guarantee certain freedoms. When put together, some interpret those collective freedoms as sovereignty and what better way to demonstrate ultimate sovereignty than to build and run your own city?  Source: ChatGPT, 10/9/25 Is there really a substantial difference between the 1980s Oregon desert city of Rajneeshpuram and the 2020s Texas coastal flats city of Starbase? If you need a quick refresher on Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the city he legally incorporated in Oregon, read my February 15, 2025 post .  What Do I think I believe they are inherently the same and a precursor of more to come. Cities normally grow organically in that people settle, attract people, jobs, arts, and culture, and then eventually incorporate for self-governance. But both Rajneeshpuram and Starbase were born out of visions from their leaders: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Elon Musk. There was no natural evolution. Sure, the labels are different: religious leaders...

The Supreme Court added another shovel of dirt on USAID's coffin, now more than 6 feet under (see my earlier  obituary ). This post articulates another of USAID’s many little-known accomplishments in Kenya (read about the first one about thwarting politicians and constitutional change here ). Peace and Security in Kenya: The USAID Approach , is now available in paperback and e-book at your favorite bookstore. Please also ask your local library to order it too. “We found an institution so frail in its structures; so thin on resources; so low on its confidence; so deficient in integrity; so weak in its public support that to have expected it to deliver justice was to be wildly optimistic. We found a judiciary that was designed to fail.” —Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, “Progress Report on the Transforma- tion of the Judiciary: The First 120 Days,” speech, Nairobi, Kenya, October 19, 2011 What Do I Think  The 2007/2008 postelection violence in Kenya was triggered by the “massively ...

Having worked on a number of environmental analyses for airports in the early 2000s, I continue to track interesting cases. I am also exploring the limitations of ChatGPT. Several months ago, I learned (thanks to my teenager) the difference between my writing and ChatGPT’s. More recently, colleagues have insisted that ChatGPT 5.0 is much better. So I am putting it to the test.  Below are two versions of the same story. One is mine. The ChatGPT prompt was: “for my blog, witawops.blogspot.com, write a piece in my style on the dissenting opinion in this case . Leave a comment indicating which is mine and which is AI’s. Disclaimer: the views expressed in this post are solely my own, published under my first amendment rights, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Government or any of its current or former federal agencies. Version 1.0 “Does anyone doubt that this Environmental Analysis would not see the light of day if this project were sited anywhere near the we...