NIGHT CALL
NIGHT CALL
By Jeff Kamen
The number on the screen suggested that the caller who had no name attached was using one of those anonymizing services. When that happens, I never pick it up, because it’s almost always a scam but something told me that I should answer the phone this time.
I recognized his voice immediately. The old friend said Elon and Trump had broken his heart “while committing mass murder” in the name of America First. Most of his professional life, my friend was part of emergency US government operations around the world helping to feed the poor and responding to natural disasters like hurricanes, droughts and earthquakes. He had been so proud to be a USAID staffer. He told me that the US taxpayer supported missions of USAID, “Fulfilled my soul’s desire to serve God because those operations were compassion in action. When I was a little kid, I wanted to be like Superman, rescuing the innocent. USAID let me do that for a career! I never got to leap tall buildings or fly through the air without an airplane, but I did get to help (bring) massive amounts of food from the American people to the hungry of the world. We also set up medical clinics which gave vaccines to safeguard the lives of millions of children against lethal diseases, including polio and measles.”
I first met this guy in South Africa in 2000 at the international AIDS conference held in Durban. I had been hired by the Clinton administration to run press operations at the conference, in support of the brilliant Director of the White House office of national AIDS policy,Sandra Thurman, now a professor of practice at Emory University. She was passionate, fiercely dedicated, and beautiful with all of that amplified by her sweet Georgia peach accent. News organizations loved to put her on television. With the help of a former newsroom colleague, who had gone from channel 11 news in New York City to write for the CBS Evening News, I got Sandy on the air, live from the international aids conference in South Africa with Dan Rather in the CBS world headquarters studio in New York City. In those days, tens of millions of Americans watched that show. Dan was great that night and Sandy, as always, was a compelling advocate and teacher, the embodiment of true compassion.
Nelson Mandela loved Sandy’s energy knowledge and commitment to doing everything possible to save the millions of lives that were at risk in his country because of AIDS. I was a bit player in that desperate life or death drama, but Mandela insisted on hunting me down at one of their shared events to thank me, “for coming to help my people.” I was always quick on my feet when speaking with American presidents and other heads of state, but I was speechless in the presence of a genuine saint. When Mandela shook my hand, I managed, “thank you, sir.“
That was only 25 years ago and I vividly remember that some of the most effective assistance Sandy’s work received on the ground in Africa was from USAID staff and outreach workers in South Africa who were super motivated by their jobs but even more so by their all consuming connection to Jesus Christ. Their profound faith in the Christ, taught them that it was their personal responsibility to act with tireless compassion to help the poor. My friend was one of those USAID spirit warriors, as I like to think of them.
He and I had lost touch with one another over the years, but yesterday, after he stumbled into a Substack of mine, he found my number and called to tell me that, “My heart has been broken…by Musk and Trump… shutting down USAID. I promise you, Jeff, innocent people mostly women and their babies are sick and dying around the world right now because Musk and Trump have no blessed idea what they are doing, and the awful, preventable suffering they are visiting upon the poor, who had come to rely on America. The damage is incalculable and I think of the trust, the hard-won confidence of people all around the world that our country had earned through the good works of USAID but now (had) lost because of MAGA’s mindless America first.
“Don’t forget, Jeff, because of one program alone, created by President George W. Bush, more than 20 million human lives have been spared through USAID. That Republican originated program is called PEPFAR, presidents emergency program for AIDS relief. Musk and Trump shut it down, disrupting the administration of medicines which stop people from dying and from spreading the disease. I’m telling you I’m heartbroken. I’m so glad that I retired long before all of this.
“I also want to tell you that we don’t go around criticizing other Christians. That’s just not our way. But listening to some pastors anoint Trump as a magnificent instrument of the Lord makes me sick. His utter lack of empathy of even a shadow of genuine compassion is at the very root of the horror that (is) the result of the brutal disruption of the work of USAID.
“Something tells me that the millions of people who voted for Trump didn’t do it imagining that he and his billionaire buddy the world’s richest man were going to commit mass murder of poor, black and brown people in the name of MAGA. Thanks for listening. Please don’t use my name. My wife is very afraid that Mr. Musk and his computer hackers will use their access to the Treasury computer to find and punish anyone for speaking out by turning off our pensions or sending the proud boys to pay us a visit.”