What I Think About What Other People Say (WITAWOPS)

I have watched the entire drama unfold over the past fourteen months. My conclusion: I think FEMA is the Titanic . The Administration steered her into an iceberg on purpose and she has begun to sink. I don’t know how long she will stay afloat, but as I described in my earlier post , I abandoned the ship this month and am now rowing away in a lifeboat. I mage generated by ChatGPT, March 2026 The Analogy On January 20, 2025, the new administration launched a defined and voter-backed mandate: shrink government, cut duplication, balance the budget, and return authority to the states. These theoretically echoed the Republican Party's historic core principles.  Like many of those who gathered to watch the launch of the RMS Titanic in 1911, I was optimistic. I believe the federal government should not spend more than it generates. Why must individuals and states have balanced budgets but not the federal government? Yes, federal spending has ballooned, due to structural redundancy, bureauc...

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 with the firing of Secretary Noem. 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 t...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

Even Shane knew you can’t run from who you are, and violence—no matter the reason—leaves a permanent mark. Shane is the protagonist of a 1949 book by Jack Shaefer set in 1889 Wyoming. He is the basis of a movie (1953) and TV series (1966) and debuted on stage circa 2023. I saw the play this week in Ashland, Oregon.  This south central Oregon city has a long-standing nexus to theater. Because of its architecture, it became the site of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1935 and is now among the largest repertory theaters in the U.S., drawing half a million visitors each year. “A man’s got to be what he is, Joey. Can’t break the mold. There’s no living with a killing. There’s no going back from one. Right or wrong, it’s a brand. A brand sticks.” Shane (1953), dir. George Stevens. Joey (Bob in the book) is a young boy who serves as the audience’s eye in the play. However, in the book, Bob is an adult narrating the story from his childhood.  Image by Freepix  What Do I think ...

The word ethics comes from the latin, ethos ,  defined as “the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution.” Contemporary debates about ethics generally center on things like artificial intelligence or medicine.  The former is neither person, group nor institution and its only ethics are what we build into it or what it learns from its creators. See this  story  about a male AI robot in Saudi Arabia groping a female reporter.  Ethics in the field of medicine (think of assisted end-of-life) is derived from a whole host of entities including the doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and lawmakers.  What do I think Go back to the Merriam-Webster definition of  ethos . It starts with  a person . A.I. or a hospital or a legislature cannot have an independent ethic; its ethic must reflect the collective ethic of its constituents. Therefore, it all depends on you and me. Our individual ethic...

Staging is a layered, complex, and interesting word.   “ Staging is the fine art of pretending your lived environment has always resembled an IKEA showroom. Sociologists call this ‘false consciousness’; Realtors call it ‘value added.’” “Every home showing is just Hamlet without the swords: you stand in someone else’s kitchen, whispering, ‘To buy, or not to buy?’ while the throw rug takes center stage.” “ Staging : the process of arranging items in a manner designed to suggest functionality, but not actual human occupation. See also: government flowcharts.” ---  witticisms generated by ChatGPT, 9/4/2025 That's AI's wit. The dictionary definition includes the method of presenting a play, a temporary platform, a phase in a progressive disease, and the arrangement of sequential components of a rocket. But in North America, it includes setting up a house for sale with art and furnishings so as to increase the appeal. A.I. now allows one to stage and unstage. A potential buyer ...