When I woke up this morning and read about a commercial jet and a military helicopter crashing together above Washington DC and then plunging into the Potomac river, all I could do was cry. I mourned the loss of life, and it hit me particularly hard because I consider DC to be my home town, although I’ve lived in North Carolina now for over 25 years. But I was also a little grateful that the ruins fell into the river, rather than onto the densely populated areas of our Nation’s capital. The death toll could have been even greater had the aircrafts fallen on places where families were putting their children to bed.

My immediate response, once I stopped crying, was to send love and light to the families and friends who had just lost people they loved. But the next thing I thought of was, How did this happen? The airspace above Washington DC is probably the most monitored airspace in the entire country, since it is home not just to a metropolitan community, but to our national executive, legislative, and judiciary bodies, the headquarters of our military and national security agencies, not to mention maybe hundreds? of foreign embassies. There are probably more eyes on planes flying above DC than anywhere else in the US.

So, obviously, some one or ones messed up. And those things happen. Because despite all our technology and systems and such, we are human, and humans make mistakes. I did send some love and light to whoever might have made that mistake, knowing if they are still alive, I’m sure they are suffering knowing that their failure resulted in so many deaths.

I spent the day teaching and working. Therefore, it wasn’t until late in the day that I heard that President Trump, after proclaiming a period of silence to recognize the losses, tried to blame it on the Democrats–no longer in charge…it happened on your watch, buddy–and even worse, on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs.

Now, we don’t know the facts yet. It is government workers–many employed by local Virginia, Maryland, or DC fire and rescue services, but many federal workers as well–who are trying to retrieve all of the bodies from the frigid waters to provide their families with some closure, as well as to collect all the pieces of the aircrafts so they can figure out what happened and hopefully prevent a similar tragedy in the future. You know, those government workers that President Trump calls “swamp dwellers” and “deep state” workers or “rogue bureaucrats”.

So without one bit of evidence, President Trump blamed this on the category of people that included those who were working to bring relief to the families and to figure out the truth of what happened so we can avoid it happening again. Meanwhile, what is happening with those federal workers? President Trump, or maybe Elon Musk…who knows who is running what these days…have promised federal workers who resign that they will get their pay and benefits through September without having to do any work. Sounds good, if you want to get out of your government job, but honestly….do you trust these people?

For example, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, representative of many potential resigners, warns that there is NO budget for workers who aren’t working and is concerned they will lose their jobs without ever getting the payout that President Trump claims he is paying. There are many, many small contractors who did work for Donald Trump in his private industry who said they never got paid, so….maybe he is trying it again with the federal government? Who knows? But I, at least, wouldn’t count on it.

We don’t have the facts, so it’s way too soon to be blaming anyone. But here’s the deal, in my mine. President Trump is presumptively blaming DEI policies that put, in his mind at least, ethnic? or other special populations in positions over their actual abilities. But is he advocating a strictly merit-based system instead? NO! He is trying to eliminate current goverment employees and replace them with “loyalists,” people who support his positions,

So what do you think? Do you feel safe flying when federal aviation professionals are hired because they support the political beliefs of our current President, rather than demonstrating a competence in guiding air navigation?

And then there is Elon Musk, out there eliminating government jobs in the cause of efficiency. Does he have any idea what he is dealing with? Do you feel safer flyer with fewer (and more politically aligned) air traffic controllers?

I have a subscription to my hometown paper, The Washington Post, that allows me a few gift links every month. So I’m linking below to what some local air traffic controllers have said about their work load. I’ve never done this before, so I hope it works. If not, please let me know and I’ll try to fix it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/30/dca-crash-helicopter-faa-government/

In conclusion, the crash was a terrible thing. Again, my heart goes out to those who lost people they loved. It shouldn’t have happened. We need to figure out why it happened and to improve things so that it doesn’t happen again. But blaming it on an ethic or inclusion policy is, I doubt, the answer to the question. And how is replacing “DEI unqualified staff” better with “Loyalist unqualified staff”?

This is a time to mourn those who were lost, and to be grateful to those who braved the cold waters to reclaim the bodies and to bring back the evidence of what happened. So let’s put our energy towards those things and leave the political arguments to another day.