“I am a father, a loving husband, and dedicated civil servant. … I am tired from weeks of being bullied and censored by billionaires.
“I am tired of waking up every morning at 2am 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 in Marquette, Iowa, in a Facebook post
On a cold, snowy, Valentine’s Day Friday, Brian Gibbs, a dedicated worker at northeast Iowa’s Effigy Mounds National Monument, discovered he was locked out of his work computer. He had been fired.
Gibbs 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 Gibbs as their educator on a field trip with Oelwein Middle School just a few months before.
“Brian was so amazing,” Kisner 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 staff of 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, Iowa, or of 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 floodplains in partnership with private landowners now is paused,” said 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 said 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.
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 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.
