Please consider these facts related to the firing or forced resignations of many thousands of federal workers in the past few weeks:

1. About one-third of all federal workers are veterans, while veterans make up only about 5% of the civilian workforce. As disabled veteran and Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illiniois said, Trump’s cuts are “a middle finger to our heroes and their lives of service.”

2. Bird flu is spreading rapidly and is threatening the nation’s poultry, cattle — and people. Who would deal with this? Workers at the Centers for Disease Control and the Agriculture Department — but so many of them have now been fired.

3. The federal workforce has in fact shrunk in the last 50 years while the U.S. population has grown by more than two-thirds.

4. Republicans are now talking about cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. Why? To pay for further tax breaks for their very wealthy backers.

Many of our neighbors who voted for Trump or sat out the election are questioning some of his recent actions and are starting to get alarmed. Please know that you are welcome in the growing resistance movement. We’re all in this together.

Ferd Wulkan

Montague