The following article was written by Dr. Stephanie Paulmeno, a co-lead for our Health Pillar. Stephanie wrote the article below in response to what she is witnessing in the United States—a country she deeply loves. Yet as a mother, wife, and nurse, she finds herself in a profound quandary. She struggles to discern which emotion weighs most heavily on her heart: overwhelming grief, barely contained outrage, or utter disgust at what she sees unfolding in her beloved country.

She feels as though our democracy is slipping away. Civility has eroded. The line between truth and blatant fabrication has blurred almost beyond recognition. And alongside this, she senses a troubling decline in compassion—toward our fellow human beings, toward children, toward families, even toward the most vulnerable among us.

Our true history is being erased and rewritten by the current administration. Long-cherished  award-winning books are being systematically banned in our schools, universities, and libraries. Our historic White House is being dismantled piece by piece. America now has lists of unacceptable "woke" or DEI words and phrases that best not show up if you are seeking government funding. Historical exhibits and artwork about the events that forged America are being removed and disappeared from our museums and other places of historical significance, along with people. Our children are being taught false narratives and all of us are being pressured to believe not what we see and hear with our own eyes and ears, but rather what blatantly duplicitous politicians and their sycophants tell us is being seen and spoken. The civil rights granted to us in our constitution are being systemically removed. America has become a lawless pirate state at the Federal level as well as in some of our states because our three co-equal branches of government lack sufficient numbers of principled people on both Parties who are willing to adhere to the oaths they took. Our present leadership has aligned itself not with our allies, but with despots, dictators, and soulless autocrats; in other words, the worst of the worst. 

I have always been a proud & passionate patriot, & now I am ashamed to be an American; but every now & again a ray of hope shines through as in the case of the example set by the good people of Minnesota! They have shown all of us what peaceful but vociferous opposition can do when we protest against all forms of wrong, including the Federal government-endorsed murdering of our people on the streets where they live. Let us remember and repeat the names of our latest two 37 year old martyrs who were engaged in peaceful protest when they were shot down at close range by representatives of the Federal government; poet and mother Renee Nicole Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti, as well as all of the people who have been disappeared, separated from loved ones, denied constitutional rights guaranteed to those living in this country, and the children being used as bait to try to capture their parents.

I am now 78 years old. I've been in healthcare practice for 57 years. I've done more marching & protesting in my 70's than I ever did in my youth and I was a child of the '60s. 

My professional career has ranged over psychiatric nursing, the gamut of long term care services and settings, and in public, population, & community health. I have a doctorate degree, but one does not need that to recognize the blatant psychological pathology & myriad personality disorders in play in those who are in large numbers, unfortunately, leading our nation. We have, and rightly so, become the laughing stock of the world. 

In a country, of immigrants I am a second generation removed Italian/Irish immigrant, too. I have worked with immigrant populations all my professional life. They are us & we are them. Political sides are merely people who see the issues differently and the solutions to those issues differently as well. That is not a reason to wish death, banishment, or imprisonment upon those who disagree with us. If we cannot peacefully overcome or learn to live with our ideological differences, I fear we are doomed to become yet another fallen Democracy. We are on that last fragile step.

Wake up America! Our time is running short to motivate a return to decency and morality. I keep hearing, "This is not who we are!", but if we don't use every means of peaceful protest at our disposal & lawfully fight back at the ballot boxes, then that is exactly who we are & heaven help us all.

Dr. Stephanie Paulmeno

(This is an expanded version of sentiments I posted in the comments section of "2026 Your Local Epidemiologist")