Kira Rambles

Public Land Cuts and Shutdowns Show the Plan is to Starve Americans into Compliance

On the morning of January 30th, 2026, my social media feed fills with news of the general strike protesting ICE violence in Minnesota. I support the strike. I have family in the upper midwest, protesting. I worked alongside Colorado’s vibrant immigrant community as an EMT and an English teacher when I lived and studied on the Western Slope. I study Poetry and Nature Writing through Western Colorado University’s remote graduate program in creative writing, and my classmates and I mourned Renee Good as a fellow Colorado writer. 

The strike, though, for my household, is complicated. It’s easy for me to participate because I’m furloughed. My partner, as a member of the United States Coast Guard, cannot. I work on charter boats in Boston Harbor, and my employer lays off staff during the winter. My partner’s housing stipend covers most of our expenses, but now, because the Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security, with a partial shutdown looming for DHS, my partner is required to work without pay for the second time in four months. Because shutdowns also stop housing stipends, for the duration of the shutdown, we will have no income. 

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want lawmakers to fund ICE. My partner and I have savings, and we will survive until his next paycheck or my return to work. In a way, this time is our own strike, and I’m committed to outlasting ICE. We can survive without DHS funding a lot longer than they can, but not every DHS employee is as privileged. Many Coast Guard, FEMA, and TSA personnel live paycheck to paycheck. They cannot afford an extended shutdown, and lawmakers will likely leverage their survival to try to push ICE funding through congress. 

It’s far from the first time they’ve played with the lives of government employees. This year reminds me of last Spring, when overarching cuts to federal agencies slashed my friends’ jobs in public lands. I studied Outdoor Education in college, and many of my classmates dreamed of working for the National Parks Service, the Bureau of Land Management, or the Forest Service. As new employees, the ones who secured federal positions after our graduation in 2024 were all on the cutting block in 2025. Those jobs were supposed to be the long-term, livable option. Federal employment, whether with the NPS or the Coast Guard, has long promised job stability. Stability this administration has destroyed. 

It’s not by accident. 

It’s harder to resist when you have to worry about housing and food security. Shutdowns and federal downsizing don’t personally affect lawmakers or billionaires. The government still pays congress members during shutdowns, and tactics like price gouging keep companies’ profits comfortable. We’re the ones paying, and the cuts and shutdowns feel like an intentional reminder that they can easily destabilize our lives. 

The plan is to starve Americans into compliance.