Isn’t it a wonder that a passionate and caring Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, visits the Oval office seeking a peaceful agreement with guarantees for continued United States support, only to be belittled and berated for not being grateful enough, being accused of being a dictator deserving of the attacks of war from Russia, and being given a suspension of all military aid and United States intelligence, as a result?

Isn’t it a wonder that U.S. federal workers, some working as experts in their fields for as many as 10 years, have been labeled as probationary and fired from their jobs in areas of federal government such as FEMA, on the heels of several natural disasters, IRS, just as tax season is at its peak, CDC, in the middle of a viral spreading diseases season and an ever growing avian bird flu crisis, not to mention firings in the Department of Defense, the Department of Education, the Department of Veteran Affairs, the United States Forestry Service, and the Federal Aviation Association, after recent multiple and fatal plane crashes only to have some of those thousands fired recalled because the administration realized the importance of their positions and dedicated work? 

Isn’t it a wonder that our longtime peaceful neighbors and trading partners, Canada and Mexico, have been levied tariffs by the U.S. president, on essential economic goods such as dairy, meats, lumber, and vital supplies to U.S. technology and automotive industries, disrupting supply chains, raising the costs of businesses, and as a result hurting hardworking American citizens and placing hundreds of American jobs at risks only to walk back those same tariffs temporarily, forcing those tariffs without oversight or concern for the American people and the disruption to the U.S. economy, as a power grab to bypass Congress?

Isn’t it a wonder that the Trump administration continues to dismantle USAID by putting nearly all of the agency’s 4,700 full-time employees on paid administrative leave and will terminate 1,600 of those key positions? USAID is an international organization that is crucial to the development of humanitarian and security assistance, a pillar in the historic U.S. tradition of American Leadership aboard operating on less than five percent of the federal budget, providing safety for foreign countries in need and ultimately providing safety for our own.

Isn’t it a wonder that Elon Musk, an unelected oligarch, with no legal authority has been allowed access to our government’s most sensitive data, payment, and communication systems, and proceeds untethered to use these systems however he pleases, given full access to our government’s payment systems that control the distribution of over $6 trillion pertaining to American’s tax refunds, Social Security payments, and federal salaries only to be given more power to hire his own former employees from his own Musk-owned businesses by the oval office?

Isn’t it a wonder that in recent social media posts, Trump suggested that the laws of the land to not apply to him and that he is a KING, defying the United States Constitution and continues to rule as an authoritarian. Isn’t it a wonder that his own vice president, JD Vance, has stated that the executive branch can ignore judicial rulings, even those made by our U.S. Supreme Court, intending to do so? Isn’t it a wonder that a Trump loyalist, Attorney General Pam Bondi will not enforce constitutional law, even though she has the power to do so?

Isn’t it a wonder that we, as a country are in a constitutional crisis? 

No, it’s not a wonder; it is a devastating disaster for our country, our allies, and the world. We are a country at risk of losing our democracy. Now the wonder is this,  what will you, as a responsible citizen, do?  

— Nancy Berg is a resident of Holland.