Column: Our country may be doomed, but our local communities don’t have to be

The current political landscape of our country feels dystopian. Every action taken by the federal government seems to send our country closer to a spiral toward total destruction. These movements feel out of our control, and they largely are. While we are powerless in President Donald Trump’s decision making, we are in complete control of how we choose to prepare and react.

Local politicians and communities can mitigate the ramifications of federal actions through detailed planning and measured responses. We have the capability to shape our small bubbles of the world, even if the larger globe feels disastrous. In a storm of troubling and terrifying federal news, focusing on our local communities and how we can impact change here can help us find a break in the clouds.

Education

On March 20, Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. This will mean a drastic cut in funding to public schools. A loss of funding for Chapel-Hill Carrboro City Schools especially will likely mean defunding programs for special needs and immigrant students and cutting language classes.

While the blame for federal funding slashes doesn’t fall on CHCCS, the responsibility to respond and the opportunity to employ local problem-solving lies before them. For example, offering online language courses to students and helping teachers transition to new jobs or departments could help keep the school system running smoothly. Additionally, finding new, creative and effective ways to fundraise and reallocating the budget to continue supporting vital programs while reducing unnecessary or extravagant spending could ease the consequences of funding loss.

Environment

The Trump administration’s decision to fire around 1,000 National Park Service employees has resulted in trouble running the parks, decreased public access and struggling conservation efforts. While we watch our national parks be disregarded, their protectors dismissed and vulnerabilities exacerbated, we must choose to protect our local parks, especially those widely utilized by the community.

For example, the Raleigh-Durham International Airport has leased a section of parkland to Wake County for decades. Lake Crabtree County Park is the county’s busiest and houses trails of various terrains, picnic shelters, playgrounds and docks for fishing and boating. Now there are discussions of RDU developing 136 acres of the park to add a new runway, expanded terminal and widened roadway, aimed at enhancing the airport. If these plans go through, we will lose a valuable green space. Local outdoors areas like this can be protected locally in absence of federal regulations.

LGBTQ+ rights

Trump has also taken an array of actions to attack transgender rights. These included bans on trans women participating in women’s sports, rescinding federal support of gender-affirming care and transgender military members, as well as moving to recognize only two sexes at the federal level.

North Carolina has waged a similar war on trans rights. But on Transgender Visibility Day this year, protesters gathered in Raleigh, advocating for the protection of trans rights, expressing their dissent of federal and state decisions and exemplifying what it looks like for citizens to fight federal changes on a local level.

In these examples and many others, the community can, and often does, do their part. While our local politicians implement policies and major changes, we can make our voice heard through protests and petitions, and help support causes we care about through donations and fundraising.

Although it shouldn’t be a necessity for local governments and communities to mitigate poor federal decisions, it is the reality we live in. Finding control and making small modifications where we can is vital in surviving the next four years. It’s important to pay attention to changes being made at the national level, contemplate how these actions will affect our communities and react accordingly when the shifts reach our doorsteps.

@dthopinion | opinion@dailytarheel.com