To the Journal editor:

Recently, the news has mentioned the sudden firing of federal public servants. I want to highlight that our very own Upper Peninsula community is not immune from the impacts of this travesty. And that each reader has a role to play in the solution.

Several of our hardworking U.P neighbors employed by the National Park Service and US Forest Service were abruptly fired late last Friday afternoon. More lost their jobs over the weekend

For example, since last Friday our president and his billionaire friend fired at least 14 valued employees at Hiawatha National Forest — and this doesn’t include any who previously fell for the “deferred resignation” offered in the infamous “fork in the road” email.

Folks, these are your neighbors who are being spat upon! These are hardworking people just like you, active in their communities, who have literally taken an oath to serve their nation without political bias. Most civil servants feel dedicated – even passionate – about the work they do, by the people, for the people.

Readers, I beg each of you to really think about this — with your heart as well as your head! Do we really want a government that disparages our public servant neighbors and randomly casts them into unemployment — leaving our government agencies without needed staff? Really? Even if there might be room to make a given agency more efficient, is this really the way to go about it? Do we really want political optics and random gunslinging?

I don’t know about you, but I prefer a more rational approach to life. One that looks carefully at a situation and then makes an orderly shift. If workforce reduction is needed, then it can be done with surgical precision, while considering the impacts to workers, community, economy, and nation. We’ve done this before and could do it again.

Instead, politicians have been playing dangerous games, dividing us for their own benefit — and we have been letting them do it. It’s hard to face this truth: We have been gullible. We have been duped, getting sucked into the fearmongering echo-chambers of social media and news media. Getting hooked by their sneaky PR tactics, imagining that our neighbors are our enemies.

We must extract ourselves immediately. Literally get our heads out of the internet/cable machine, and deliberately look each other in the face. Take a breath, let go of the fear and hate, and remind ourselves that we are all humans with the same basic needs. Remind ourselves that we are at our best when we help each other. Each of us needs to make it our mission to broaden our community connections to include people on all sides of the political fence. And demand that our politicians do better immediately.

Let’s work together to turn the ship toward sanity, right here in the U.P. Call your congressman and demand an immediate end to this poor treatment of the civil service. Or better yet, next time you are in Marquette, visit your congressional representative. Let them know you care more about your neighbors than about their political games.