Impacts On People – Kansas 50501

If you love this country, regardless of religion, sexual orientation, race, political perspective, or any contrived categorization of individuals, STAND UP and BE COUNTED!

Impact Statements

I have been clinically depressed since Trump election, not because of Trump so much, but because a majority of the election showed little regard for their country that they voted for someone who said he would be a dictator ono day 1. Someone who tried to overthrow the government. Someone who has bragged about sexual assault. Who is a rapist, a racist, a misogynists, a felon. We can probably survive Trump, but how can we survive that?

As a single mother and teacher, I carefully budget my money. It is time to renew my rental lease and the inflation is causing a 13% increase!

FSU needs to be the last school effected by gun violence. I have been fighting against gun violence since I was 13 after the Parkland shooting. ‘m 20 now, still fighting for the safety of my friends. Our country is broken because of You!

Kansas Resident – A message to Senator Marashall: Do your Job! Honor the Constitution!

My son-in-law works for social security administration. He is besides himself with worry everyday. Good, competent coworkers being fired and incompetent MAGAs being promoted. The agency is being destroyed and people’s lives are being destroyed

Colleen in Kansas – My gay son nearly committed suicide due to your hateful rhetoric. Do the right thing!

My boyfriend deserves to be here and get an education. Immigrants built this country and are here for a reason. If you take away immigrants, you take away peoples lives and opportunities. People want to exists in this country, why can’t the government understand that? Why won’t you protect us and the people we love? Hurting one group of people hurts us all! Pledge save the people we care about and save us! Do something, do something quick

As a Christian, I am horrified. As a woman, I am petrified. As an Aunt, medical worker, daughter. This is wrong!

The love of my life is a 2 time organ transplant recipient. Even with his amazing employer provided health insurance, the drugs he needs to stay alive cost him $500 one month, $900 the next. The cost associated with life shouldn’t risk death

I work with people with special needs. Just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exists. Everyone matters. Everyone deserves the same human rights. Save our Public lands, save our education. Save our Democracy. Save our history, the real history. We matter. Not just the rich, fuck the rick. Eat the rich.

Teacher, education department, senor, social security, 2 brothers overseas, one worried about his social security. The other, the social security website still has his status as pending for several months since registering. We ALL paid in! Family members needing assistance, fearful of homelessness.

Protect PBS & NPR. Protect Smithsonian. Protect Federal Employees

Resident of Lawrence, KS: Two of my children work full time jobs and cannot support their families without Medicaid and SNAP benefits. These are not dead-beat, lazy stereotypes. These are loving parents, friendly community members and most importantly, MY CHILDREN and GRANDCHILDREN. This is real impact!

Abortion is Healthcare. Vaccines are important. Trust science. Protect science

KS Resident – Trump talks about sending mentally ill to El Salvador. Nazis took my mentally ill great uncle. This is not Democracy, this is not humane. Stop destruction of humanity

My dad could talk to anyone about anything. He is now talking to representatives as a public school teacher. He should be retired, but instead policies are complicating an already shortage of teachers, with concerns about using the wrong pronouns rather than explaining how the human body works. Instead of discussing vital fundamental information to future doctors and those seeking medical careers, now he has to go find a specific video explaining total anatomy due to religion seeping into the government.

Anonymous – I work for a hospice and a large number of my patients rely on Medicaid. I also volunteer at a food pantry where Harvesters’ donate a huge amount of good that will be lost due to loss of funding of Harvesters. CO₂ just hit 430 ppm and is increasing at an accelerated rate, yet my cousin lost her home in the Paradise Fire and the national disasters are just going to increase with little, nor no support from FEMA! God save us from this huge disruption.

As a mental health provider, if, as clients lose Medicaid, it will greatly effect my livelihood. But most importantly, the negative impact to their health, my mental health is suffering daily as well.

Local Protester: – Protect HUD and Headstart. Defend section 504. Stop purge of federal workers. Defend CFPB, come on folks. Stop HR 722, HR 32. Protect PBS and NPR, free speech. Oppose save ACT HR 22. Save HEH. Oppose NORRA. Protect NIH. Protest unlawful deportations, we are on worldwide humanitarian watch for a reason. Protect national forest, No repeat of dust bowl, do not go back

I am a clinically licensed, (LCPC, MAC, ATR) mental health professional in Kansas. The vast majority of my caseload is on Kansas Medicaid. These folks desperately need mental health and physical health services and they are desperately afraid of losing their services and their patients rights. Please protect these vulnerable people

More Statements:

Topeka Kansas Resident
- I am part of the LGBTQT community and would like to keep my rights. I value my rights to vote as an American citizen, as a woman, and I protest the action by the Trump Administration to challenge my right by “The Save Act”.
Topeka KS
- I am a woman veteran of the US Navy and when we joined, we gave our oath to the US Constitution. I am alarmed by the disregard of the 1^st, 5^th, 14^th, etc. amendments by the current president. The dehumanization of immigrants, women, and the LGBTQT communities, amongst others is disgusting. Please look in your heart to see how much our president is tearing our country apart.
KS Resident
- I teach children. I am teaching about the US Constitution. I am teaching about our amazing democracy and system of checks and balances. While the Trump Administration ignores and decimates it all
The Administration has made it a NIGHTMEAR to conduct necessary research! I am a researcher who now has to rewrite all of my work in the neuroscience and ecology due to the restrictions placed by the Trump Administration! I also can’t apply to my Ph. D programs due to the revoking of funding. The lack of care for education and humanity is vile! DO BETTER!
I am a VET from Vietnam ear. Where is your Humanity????
I have a transgender child, who is living in fear for their life! My retirement funds are disappearing. My other child is graduating college and will not be able to attend a Ph D. Program due to the student loan situation.
It is imperative that we care for children, the earth and one another. The action being taken are destructive. Please stop over reaching!!
Accessibility, Diversity, Inclusion and Equity are Christian values and human rights!
Hands off my Social Security.
- It is my only income and I stand in line for my friends are all colors & they resect democracy more than any republican in office.
- This Administration’s motto is:
  - BE MEAN
  - BE EVIL
- And women’s rights, you messed with the wrong people. We will prevail, , we are stronger than you little scared white men! We will run all of you out of office
- So, enjoy your LAST term while you can
- We are here for one purpose – To UNITE to get ALL of you out of government!
We the People
- You are the President of the United States to make our country better for ALL the People
WTF
Kansas Resident
- My sleep is interrupted every night, thinking of what Trumps MAGA is doing.
Please someone stop this regime! We are all affected by this lawlessness. We all live in fear. Keep his hands off of social security programs, Medicare, etc.
Anxiety, Stress
- Will I get my social security?
- Fear of our rights being gone
My parents have lived here 23 years. They have never left to reunite with their families. They have worked and paid taxes. They deserve to stay!
I am a history teacher.
- My student’s future is at stake.
- Their well-0being is at stake.
My son lost a (something) 3 years ago. He depends on several of the programs Trump could care less. He has no empathy! I’m on social security. If Trump is successful, we will be without income! Trump needs to be Impeached! As with all the incompetent cronies. HIS Will!!
Personally my husband will lose his job! We know several others who have lost their federal jobs too. Just because of “cuts”. Loss of social security for some too!
Senator Jerry Moran, from a KS Resident
- Stop being a moron and do you job!
- Support and defend our Constitution!
I have a friend who has a visa to be here and was under threat of deportation. So I, as a Reverand got him and his girlfriend married. So he could apply for Citizenship. My friend faces possible deportation, he & his Father pay more in taxes than most Politicians!
IMPACT!
- My youngest son is 9 years old and is studying @ K State. This is depressing and angry and trying to figure out how to navigate the political climate
  - Will he have a country to be free within?
Thinking of my daddy veteran of WWII, who fought with thousands of other Americans to defend fascism. Now Trump administration is ready to hand it all back. To think of these veterans and their sacrifices being thrown is a disgrace and a slap to their memories
Where are my woman’s rights! Roe vs Wade also protects medic al privacy.
- Save our GOD damned Parks & Lands
My husband and I are terrified about what is happing with the Social Security. If we don’t have social security, we cannot buy food & the medications we need to survive. The government’s treatment of veterans, such as my husband, who served 6 years in the Marines. The treatment of immigrants is horrible and so undervalued.
Stop messing with our schools. All of our students deserve an equitable education.
- I am not allowed to use the words Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity
I work for Head Start, which may be cut off
I suffer depression every day over the loss of our rights and the destruction of our democracy.
I am afraid I’m losing my social security and my daughter will her SSI.
As an ex federal worker, I feel the pain of other federal workers. Trump is an anarchists and should be impeached!
You Mr. President, are lying to the American People. My retirement has been significantly impacted because of your actions! SHAME ON YOU!!
This no health care for women is bullshit!!!! Fuck Donald Trump!!!!!!!!!!
Are you actually OK men if your wife, girlfriend, or daughter was raped? Why aren’t you standing up?
KS Resident
- I teach high schoolers Government and I am very outspoken! I also teach current Ethics & women’s studies and will continue to for now feeding my family. Healthcare & Housing is rising
My friend, who is a legal citizen, born in Philadelphia, is carrying her citizenship legal paperwork with her 24/7
Education grants cuts, impacting students and educators!
My mom needs Medicare/Medicaid!
- Wheelchairs are expensive
I did not vote for you Mr. President and am appalled at your pettiness. You are an embarrassment to the Spirt of America! SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!!
I am retired and on a fixed income. My retired entitlements are cut in half! In half! You are allowing this to happen. Why are you letting this happen? It is tough to buy food and necessities as my bills are growing and I can’t afford to stay warm and probably not cool! What are you doing to help us? The president is taking up innocent people. When will I be next? What are you going to help? Our harvesters is being cut, our schools are loosing money and support. What are you doing to help? HELP US. GET BRAVE! SAVE AMERICA!
I am extremely concerned about the President signaling that he will not obey the Supreme Court. In our common law system, the LAW is 1) what statutes say and 2) What the Courts say. Everyone that takes an oath (Senators, attorneys, law enforcement, etc.) has an individual duty to honor that obligation; it is an abrogation of that duty to pass legislation that appears to violate the constitution, or decline to take action to protect the constitution and say, ‘well, I’ll let the courts settle that out’. You cannot pass the buck on your obligation to the Constitution. EACH of us who swear an oath have a duty to act in accordance with that oath. An officer can’t break down someone’s door on a whim without a warrant or probable cause and say, ‘we’ll see later what the Court thinks about it’. The Senate cannot pass a law it believes to be a violation of the constitution like requiring people to carry ID in public and produce it on demand regardless of Reasonable suspicion (violates 4th Amendment) and say ‘we’ll see if the Supreme Court is willing to let this one go’. EACH person swearing the oath must abide by it in THEIR actions, not pass the buck on the Constitution.
I am also extremely concerned about the President allowing Musk access to data (including longitudinal research data used by multiple institutions and paid for with our tax dollars) in a manner that enables him to potentially change, disseminate, or destroy it. Please do what you can to protect our institutions; they SERVE us in so many ways that Americans don’t even realize.
Thirdly, I pay nearly $25,000 a year in social security as a solo practitioner, more than I can afford to save for retirement. The estimate is that when I am 70, I will be paid $3,000 per month in social security. This is literally three times less than the annual interest on what I have paid in. (which by now would have yielded me a million dollars by now, at 5% interest). I appreciate that it is a benefit program that supports others so I should not view it that way, but it angers me that when I retire and start getting $3,000.00 per month, the government will take the begrudging attitude that they are doing me a favor. I pay over 39% of my income in taxes, and am going to have to rely on my modest social security for the majority of my retirement income. It is unacceptable to change the rules of the game and compromise what I and others have planned to rely on; it is an entirely reasonable expectation, that the government give us what they promised, ESPECIALLY given the literal financial sacrifice we have made to secure that promised benefit.
Including employer support, 15.3% of the income paid out to every single American (and immigrant) is sent to the Social Security Administration. It is no wonder that Social Security expenditures are 20% of the budget. It is hardly ‘suspicious’ that it is so large a part of the budget given that it is funded from the biggest individual tax designed solely to support it. It was functioning how it should, with extraordinary efficiency. It is there for a critical reason, one which represents a fundamental commitment that was created as part of citizens’ commitments to one another to create financial security. Having a society in which everyone has their basic needs met if they cannot work, is incredibly important to societal stability.
I pray every day that you and other leaders feel in your hearts, those three fundamental principles I learned in my Mennonite upbringing: Personal responsibility for your actions, compassion, and service to others. I pray that your love for God and all his people shows up in your work serving your constituents. Given the absence of love in the tone taken by the President in his Easter message, I feel that this work will require you to exercise great spiritual discernment, fearless honesty, and more courage than ever. You have my support in this great task.
Me & my fiancé are both trans. She’s lost her meds and we’re both concerned for the future. It’s scary that hate end our lives. I hope for a better future!
I am a Kansas homeowner and taxpayer. My sister can‘t visit me without risking herself, because she is trans. The tariffs have decimated my retirement. I’m afraid for myself because I can’t find my birth certificate and I am autistic. RFK Jr. wants to put me on a registry, just like how the Nazis gave us a black triangle. Restore due process. Let people live their lives.
The government is kidnaping people with no due process and I’m very afraid for the brown people in my life. The psychological exhaustion and shock of watching our democracy fail around me is making me bounce between intense fear, grief, manic news consumption, powerlessness and intensely tired.
A Concerned Citizen
- I REALLY hope that our tourist industry is hit HARD, not just that the president gets pushback from EU leaders… “German Tourists in Hawaii Handcuffed, Strip-Searched, Jailed, & Deported.” April 9, 2025. By Juergen T Steinmetz. ETurbo News.
- [Also: “Zwei Freundinnen flogen nach Hawaii – und landeten in einem Albtraum.”
- von Leonie Scheuble. 15. April 2025 18:23 Uhr. Also Ostsee Zeitung. Also Beat of Hawaii.]
- “No Aloha for 2 German girls when they wanted to start a 3-week dream vacation in Hawaii. They were arrested for the first time in their life at Honolulu International Airport after being intimidated by U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement.
- After 5 weeks in Thailand & New Zealand, 18 year-old Charlotte Pohl & her 19 year-old friend Marie Lepere were looking forward to the highlight of their around-the-world trip: a 3-week vacation in the Aloha State of Hawaii & a tour of the United States before returning to their hometown in Rostock, Germany.
- A Nightmare Holiday began after arriving in Hawaii.
- Arriving at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu (HNL) after a 7 1/2 hour flight from Japan on Sunday, they felt the gentle trade winds on their way to the federal detention center, in handcuffs.
- After this, they then were separated & interrogated by US immigration officers for hours. After changing into prison clothes, it became clear that their dream vacation had ended.
- They ended up in deportation detention, after being strip searched, to be sent to Tokyo the next day, transferring to Qatar Airways via Doha to Frankfurt, Germany.
- What was their crime?
- Most American visitors stay in Hawaii for 2-5 days. Most Germans, however, stay for an average of 2 weeks. A 3-week stay was more than suspicious for the Trump administration to allow them to enter the United States. They had all their paperwork, Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), ongoing airline reservations, enough money & credit cards, & a place to stay for the first week.
- They had no criminal record & were into week 6 of their around-the-world travel.
- According to them, a U.S. immigration officer made them sign a confession that they entered the United States to work.
- Ms. Pohl & Ms. Lepere said they never “confessed” to this, & never had a plan to work. They wanted to experience the Aloha Spirit of hospitality, so many in the world are talking about.
- Instead, they were held in a cold prison cell with a thin blanket & a small towel.
- The German Foreign Office confirmed its involvement in the case, providing consular support after the travelers were detained in Honolulu.
- Aloha turned into Hell.
- The ladies are planning to submit a protest to the German Foreign Ministry. They also told a newspaper in Rostock that they were planning another vacation to Mexico & Costa Rica, but never to the United States again.
- Are Germans on the US Immigration Target list?
- This is the second high-profile case within one month of German tourists arrested when entering the United States with legal papers & no ill intent. This case triggered travel advisories by the Federal Republic of Germany to their citizens to alert of unpredictable & strict enforcement by US Immigration.
- Psychological Terror Warning for Foreign Travelers to the United States….”
A Concerned Citizen
- Long but insightful perspective- keep showing up!
- Peter Birkenhead on Trump’s approval rating: why it does not fluctuate (much) from its stagnant 47%, no matter what; why it doesn’t matter to those of us interested in saving our democracy; and what does matter:
- ▫️As of today, Donald Trump’s supposedly “tanking” approval rating stands at 47%. Which is pretty much where it’s been for the past eleven years. Yes, there have been minor upticks and downturns of a few points here and there. Yes, a majority of Americans disapprove of the tariffs. Yes, a majority think the economy is heading in the wrong direction. And yes, a majority disapprove of the job Trump is doing.
- That’s not new. Trump’s popularity has almost never been above 50%, except for very brief periods of time. He’s never needed it to be. His power derives not from the size but the durability of his popular support, and there’s rarely been an approval rating as stubbornly durable as his.
- Especially given the hundreds — thousands — of incidents over the past decade that would have sunk the careers of, say, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, or Hillary Clinton.
- Think of it. All the corruption, the scandal, the pain and death and misery. All the insults to human decency and injuries to democratic ideals.
- And his numbers are still pretty much where they were when it all started.
- I am uninterested in whatever minor variation will follow yesterday’s vile display in the Oval Office, or tomorrow’s outrage, or next week’s. They will mean nothing.
- What Trump supporters (as a whole, as a voting bloc, PLEASE don’t tell me about your MAGA cousin who’s having second thoughts) are thinking means nothing. The only thing that matters is what Trump’s opponents are thinking. What we’re thinking.
- I remember making posts like this during Trump’s first term, and wondering exactly what I’m wondering right now.
- Which is very much not, “What will it take for his supporters to turn away from him,” but rather, “What will it take for his opponents to realize his supporters won’t turn away from him?”
- Because the answer to that question is crucial. It will shape everything that happens over the next few weeks and months.
- If, as I suspect, a sizable number of us are sitting at home today thinking that Trump’s open defiance of a Supreme Court ruling, refusal to return an innocent, legal resident of the US from a gulag in El Salvador, and declaration that he wants to send American citizens to the same prison without due process, will somehow harm his approval rating, that does not bode well for our side.
- Nothing will harm his approval rating.
- Sure it might — might — go down a few points in the next few days. It won’t mean a thing. Give it a few weeks.
- To believe otherwise is to not understand the story of the Trump era. The story of the Trump era isn’t “A bad man came along and duped a bunch of well-meaning, gullible people.” Donald Trump didn’t conjure his supporters from the ether with his magic MAGA wand. His supporters conjured him.
- They wanted him. Badly. They’d been looking, searching, begging, screaming for someone like him, pushing every Republican candidate further and further to the right with every election cycle, demanding loudly that they “take a tougher” line on this, and “not give an inch” on that, that they “tell it like it is,” and “say what everyone is thinking,” for years. For decades.
- They werent duped.
- They are never going to see the light. (Of course a few will, here and there. But not in meaningful numbers.) There will be no scales falling from eyes, no epiphanies, no death bed conversions. Not among the bedrock base, which has not budged an inch in ten years.
- They waved signs that said, MASS DEPORTATIONS NOW at their third Trump convention.
- They weren’t duped.
- The only duping that’s gone on is the self-duping many of us have been guilty of for many years. It’s a very human, very understandable, thing to do. To think better of your fellow human beings than perhaps they do themselves. To believe that, with enough patience, empathy, education and reason they are bound to see the error of their ways.
- That belief is a dangerous one in this moment. It manifests in political choices that are bound to not only fail, but help the bad guys continue doing bad things.
- It doesn’t matter if a few thousand Trump supporters see the error of their ways. It doesn’t matter if this or that Republican politician is momentarily seized by courage or conscience and speaks up about his or her disappointment in the president. The overwhelming majority of Trump supporters will remain Trump supporters NO MATTER WHAT.
- Did you ever think you’d see Republican voters support a candidate who was openly subservient to Russia? Did you ever think you’d see them support a flagrant, serial adulterer and drug user? A denigrator of the military? A draft dodger? A New Yorker?
- In 2014 Republicans raged at President Obama for supposedly not working hard enough to stop the Ebola epidemic. Six years later they followed Trump’s lead and physically threatened people working to stop an epidemic.
- Nothing will shake them.
- Well, almost nothing.
- There is one thing, one thing Donald Trump could do to lose significant support. And no, it is not making his supporters “feel the pain.” It is not making them poor. These are people who are openly welcoming an imminent recession.
- No, the one and only thing Donald Trump could do to tank his approval rating would be to stand in front of a camera and say, “Black and Latino people are as fully human as any white man or woman. They are possessed of the same inalienable rights, and deserving of the full enjoyment of those rights and the opportunities they promise, opportunities they have for too long been denied.”
- Now THAT would be a deal breaker.
- Because that’s the deal. They give him everything, he gives them fewer Black actors on their TV’s, fewer Black managers at their offices, fewer Latino pilots on their planes, fewer Spanish names on the backs of their team’s uniforms.
- He breaks THAT deal, and all bets are off.
- So we need to get it straight. We cannot see this struggle as a debate, as a project of persuasion. If some MAGA supporters are persuaded along the way, great! I say welcome them with open arms. And never, ever stop fighting hard to make their lives better. All of their lives.
- But progress is going to come when we, not they, see the light. Before the left can meaningfully slow the MAGA rampage it needs to come to terms with the fact that the enemy isn’t Trump, but the people who put him in the White House.
- That is a very hard thing for a lot of us on the left to accept about our countrymen. But this struggle is more analogous to a civil war than it is to a heightened disagreement between political parties. We won’t win it by persuading the enemy, but by overwhelming him.
- Our energies should be channeled towards each other. Galvanizing, motivating, and enabling each other. Creating and sustaining solidarity. We can get a hundred first-time protestors out in the streets, or first-time voters to the polls, for the same investment it takes to turn one MAGA supporter toward the light.
- Our hope doesn’t lie in Trump’s poll numbers going down. It lies in our commitment to keeping students from being disappeared and government workers from being fired and cancer research labs from being defunded and democracy from being destroyed.
- Our hope doesn’t lie with them, it lies with us.▫️ ~Peter Birkenhead
A self-employed Gig worker, an natively born American Citizen
- I have been self-employed since 2008, that is 17 years. In that time, I have made very good money. However, in today’s unstable business world, I am now having contracts canceled nor are there new contracts as employers are freezing hiring and contractors. How do I pay my bills?