To the editor:

My friend “Taylor” grew up in Marshall, attending church, participating in sports, graduating from MHS. Inspired by their parents’ public service as educators, “Taylor” worked abroad for aid organizations after college. While completing an MA in public policy at the Humphrey Institute they served as an intern with the United States Agency for International Development–USAID–in Africa. USAID quickly saw “Taylor’s” superior organizing skills and Minnesota work ethic and hired them; with their young family in tow, “Taylor” served in Africa for more than a decade before being transferred to Central America.

When I was in Bogotá, Colombia, on sabbatical in 2023, I met with “Taylor” twice; they were overseeing USAID programs in the Caribbean. This included setting up an office in Cartagena that would determine whether migrants qualified as refugees and could enter the U.S. legally before they made the dangerous journey on foot through the Darien Gap to Panama.

Elon Musk has labeled USAID as “a criminal organization” and President Trump claims that “radical lunatics” run the agency. Did Marshall produce a “radical lunatic criminal” or did the community nourish “Taylor’s” humanitarian instincts? Now, I feel uncomfortable exposing “Taylor’s” identity in their hometown for fear that someone may agree with the current President that “Taylor” is a “radical lunatic” working for a “criminal organization” and may want to stigmatize or even harm “Taylor” and their family.

Trump and Musk cannot fathom why anyone would want to feed, clothe, house, and educate the less fortunate, and believe that those involved in such work are “radical lunatics,” “suckers,” or simply showing up for a do-nothing job. We educators, social workers, nurses–all who have chosen a career in public service–feel threatened by the current administration. We now live in a country whose president finds no value in those who want to make the world a better place for all humanity, to “build the Kingdom of God” as my Catholic faith would describe it.

If Trump or Musk grew up in Marshall like “Taylor,” perhaps they would have a different opinion.

Dr. Thomas J. Williford

Marshall