Words matter to us in this line of work. Maybe we don’t always choose just the right ones, but we spend a lot of time worrying over them. When writers try out new words on us, editors will ask, “What does this mean?”
And so, we are struggling to parse the language of this new government. On Jan. 20, the president issued an executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” I don’t know what that means, so I read on: “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.” That sounds familiar enough. But the order says the policy is “grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” I’m lost again.
In addition to using words in ways that defy meaning, the government is trying to make some words disappear, including “diverse,” “equality,” “trans,” “injustice,” “disability,” “climate science,” “prejudice,” and “privilege.” Along with the words, a lot of people’s jobs are disappearing.
On Feb. 11, the acting chief program officer of AmeriCorps sent out an “Executive Order Compliance Update.” AmeriCorps, she wrote, “is taking proactive action to ensure alignment” with the president’s executive orders.
On March 21, Misty Niemeyer, the Barnstable County AmeriCorps program manager, wrote to colleagues that their documents had been “updated” to meet the new requirements, “which ensures we are still eligible for federal funding.” She said it was important to comply with orders to prohibit activities related to diversity, equity, gender identity, or climate change.
As Tyler Jager reports this week, Helping Our Women, the nonprofit that has received AmeriCorps grants to support people with chronic health problems, also chose to comply with Trump’s orders, removing language on its website that said it served people identifying as women, trans, or nonbinary.
Not everyone complied. The board of Lily House, the hospice in Wellfleet that has also had an AmeriCorps worker, didn’t. Executive Director Dawn Walsh said they would end their affiliation with AmeriCorps rather than compromise their fundamental values.
Wiping out words, said HOW Executive Director Gwynne Guzzeau, “didn’t feel good at all.”
It didn’t work, either. Compliance made no difference. On April 28, the federal government terminated the Barnstable County AmeriCorps program and canceled the AmeriCorps VISTA grants that were being administered by Helping Our Women whether the organizations involved purged their websites of forbidden words or not.
The administration is not just gutting social service programs. By threatening independent government agencies and nonprofits with loss of funding, it is stripping words, facts, and ideas from the documents that record the history of our society, our humanitarian ideals, and the achievements of scientists. It is making us all more ignorant.
“An ignorant people can never remain a free people,” said Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who died last week. “Democracy cannot survive too much ignorance.”
