I am alarmed by the changes that the current White House occupant has made to our government agencies that work to protect our education system, our health and our nation.
He has filled our Department of the Interior with lobbyists from gas and oil companies. There are proposals to allow gas drilling adjacent to our national parks, and ORVs being allowed to operate in the parks. (This latest change has been overturned due to tremendous objections.) Our national parks are gems of natural beauty that deserve protection for generations to come. Many of us look to enjoy the quiet and natural beauty at our parks. I also heard on NPR there was talk of privatizing the parks.
The Trump administration has proposed acceleration of the pace of its environmental rollbacks for coal-fired power plants by proposing weakened rules that target cleaning up heavy metals and ash from coal plants and keeping these from going into groundwater and waterways.
He appointed Betsy DeVos as secretary of education. Her qualifications are financial donations and support for charter schools. She has no background in education. She has promoted the privatization of public schools through vouchers, called for deep cuts to federal funding, rolled back protections for vulnerable children, and promoted the for-profit college industry that has defrauded countless students.
Trump campaigned with promises to “drain the swamp.” Instead, he has merely filled the swamp with piranha. Our nation cannot tolerate another term with Trump as president.
Diane Forster-Burke, Cottonwood Heights