Swords into Plowshares: Why We Must Speak for Those Who Can’t Afford to Lose More

“The Cost of Silence: Health, Hunger, and a Call to Action” By Joan Vannorsdall

Health Care in Crisis

Here are the facts of the impacts forecast in the wake of Trump’s Big Horrible Bill:

1. Health care advocates in Virginia warm the cuts would reduce access to medical care across the commonwealth and could put half a dozen hospitals at risk of closure.

2. More than 1/3 of Virginia’s hospitals are operating in the red.

3. The reductions being considered to federal Medicaid spending could kick roughly 11.8 million Americans off their health insurance—including more than 300,000 Virginians, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 

4. Both Kaine and Sen. Mark Warner have warned that the decrease in funding could lead millions of Americans into medical debt and increase the total medical debt to $50 billion –a 15% jump from current levels. 

SNAP: A Safety Net in Danger

1. Here are the facts of the impacts forecast in the wake of the bill:  SNAP will be cut by more than 20 percent.  In Virginia, at least 204,000 people—including children—are in danger of losing some SNAP benefits, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  Nationwide, more than 11 million people will lose their benefits.

2. Tens of billions of dollars of SNAP costs will be shifted onto states—creating and unfunded mandate that would almost certainly require states to cut benefits and eligibility.

3. Virginia would be expected to come up with as much as $439 million in state funds in order to fill the hole or be forced to make further cuts to food benefits by 2028.

4. SNAP funding supports approximately 16,173 Virginia jobs and $546,478,800 in direct wages, creating $470,672,400 in direct tax revenue for Virginia.

Those are the facts. 

When I read those facts…here’s the story I think about over and over. 

A Lesson from the Side of the Road 

When I was fourteen, my family lived outside of Gettysburg, PA.  We were fortunate—although “food stamps” hadn’t reached Adams County yet (a story for another day), we had plenty of food at my home, and good medical care, and a car that ran (most of the time).

But that wasn’t the case for some of the people who lived down the road from us, and one family in particular stays in my mind to this day.

The Gastleys lived in a slanted trailer off the Hanover Road.  They were junk dealers.  I’d heard it was John Gastley and his two sisters who lived there, though the only one I ever saw on the road was John himself, who seemed impossibly old and frail as he pulled his wagon of scavenged junk up the hill, tilting and bumping on the too-narrow berm. 

One day, I walked to my father’s office to catch a ride home after a school event.

And there was John Gastley, pulling his wagon, eyes on the ground.

My father pulled off the road.  “Mr. Gastley, would you like a ride?  We can put your wagon in the back,” he said.  And that’s exactly what happened—my father lifted the trunk lid and loaded the junk-loaded wagon inside.   Then he opened the passenger door for John.  Who slid into the car and nodded his head in thanks. 

Not a word was spoken.    

But I learned a lot that day, though it took me a long time to really understand what I’d seen.  What I saw was my father respecting someone who deserved respect, and helping someone who needed help.  Doing what we as human beings are asked to do: take care of one another; carry kindness and respect for all; share the burdens of our world to lighten their load. 

That we are now rescinding the help that so many need in this world—so that the rich get richer and the poor get sicker?  My father would be stunned, sad, and angry.

And so am I.

What We Can Do—Together But right now, it’s up to all of us to turn our swords of anger into plowshares of cooperative righteousness. 

We know what is right.  We can find the words and persistence to speak them.  Many voices are better than few.

So speak to your elected officials.  Become an elected official.  Read and write and advocate and make change. 

We’re the lucky ones.  We have food and medical care.  Let’s be sure that others do, too. 

Swords into plowshares.