Julie Kunaan Smyth says she read about Presidents Day demonstrations called for at every state capital, but lived too far away from hers, so figured the Fairbanks City Hall would be the best place to go.
“I heard about the, uh, protests at any, the closest Government building to you. So State Capitol, D. C., or your City Hall,” she said.
She stood among residents holding signs about democracy, national policies and recent federal decisions. She said she is feeling President Donald Trump’s policies hit her at home.
“It seems like everything's being impacted. They're not funding the VA, because we have a lot of veterans in my family. And veterans are DEI. Also, A lot of Native things, including IHS, that's Indian Health Services. I don't know if they're really getting rid of federal waste or federal bloat because they're just mass firing people,” she said.
Bethany Thompson says her work with autistic children is funded by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a national law that protects qualified individuals from discrimination based on their disability.
“The 504 Act supports our disabled people, supports our kids who have IEPs, and it gives us our wheelchair access in apartments. So our disabled folks are able to get to places that they're supposed to go.
I mean it could reduce the taxes, getting rid of it. Um, but these are essential things that we need to have in our communities to help us grow.”
She’s concerned that Elon Musk, President Trump’s efficiency czar, has not been vetted for protecting confidential information.
“He doesn't have the security clearances to be in our government and that's not okay. He's going into the IRS now, looking at our taxes. He's trying to freeze our social security, which helps a lot of my loved ones,” she said.
Teresa Knezek is also concerned that the dramatic federal cuts are more demonstrative than effective.
“If you actually were serious about trimming federal bloat, you would audit the departments that you're concerned about. You would have impartial third parties auditing their activities and their transactions and you would do a like actual measured considered process. You wouldn't just go in and fire the entire department and be oh oops maybe we screwed up maybe we can hire some of them back, like it's a clown show.”
While many are focused on federal workers leaving agencies unstaffed, others, like Casey Youngblood are concerned about impact on the local economy.
“we're working with NRCS all last summer. Um, great people. Folks over there that help, uh, beginning farmers with technical assistance and grant assistance and, um, they just lost two employees. There's only six of them to begin with. They lost their engineer.
She is talking about the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which advises local farmers.
Um, that will have a direct impact on the local economy. I was just at the farm forum two weeks ago and lots of people there use that resource. That's not something that private market capitalism is going to come in and solve for our local, new, agriculture economy.”
Assistant Professor of Public Law Carol Gray says many of Trump’s policy changes are strategic distractions.
“I’m concerned not only about the number of things he's proposing that are totally illegal, but the quantity of things tells me that he's trying to flood the field.”
She says the president is pushing against the checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution.
“When he proposes that people born in the U. S. are not citizens, which is blatantly unconstitutional. He knows that. Even these mass firings, a lot of those are contrary to protections for, by unions and by employment practices, um, and he knows that, but he's trying to tie up the courts and the people power and the voice of the people so that the flood of things, at least some of them, will go through. He'd consider that a victory. I consider it a constitutional crisis.”
