Fired Haskell coach is another story of Trump and Musk putting money and malice first | Opinion

“Driving Force” — That’s the title of the book I just finished, written by Dick Francis, former British jockey turned mystery writer. The end of the story centered around what people’s motive is for doing something, what their driving force is.

For Adam Strom, coach of the women’s basketball team at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, his driving force led him to continue coaching the team, even though he had been “let go” by the Trump administration. As Vahe Gregorian wrote in his March 4 column “Haskell women’s basketball team reaches NAIA Tournament,” Coach Strom’s driving force “aligns nicely with … the values posted on the west wall of the gym: ‘Integrity. Respect. Responsibility. Sportsmanship. Servant Leadership.’”

Many other federal government employees who have also been unceremoniously fired in recent weeks and whose stories I’ve read stated unequivocally that the value of servant leadership was their driving force. Serving the United States and the world communities for the betterment of everyone gave them great satisfaction, a sentiment I saw firsthand again and again when my family and I lived overseas.

I can only imagine what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s driving force has been over the past three years while his country has been invaded and brutally attacked by Russia. But from his actions and words, I think I can deduce that he is motivated by a deep sense of responsibility toward his country and the courage of his fellow Ukrainians.

Francis writes that there are three main driving forces central to his story: muscle, money and malice. These three have all been very much on display since this new administration took office. I would add a fourth “m” — an umbrella, I think: megalomania.

Muscle: fully visible in the the shameful way that Zelenskyy was treated in the Oval Office recently, bullied, berated, yelled at by two men who behaved like mob enforcers and thus showed no self-respect whatsoever. Or the way Vice President JD Vance took European leaders to task at the Munich Security Conference recently, prompting one family member in Europe to remark, “Well, now we know what kind of person JD Vance is!”

Money: undeniably the driving force behind Elon Musk’s claim to a government position, both because he bought it and because he stands to benefit from it financially. The purges of government agencies and personnel he’s orchestrating is so slapdash it can hardly be called efficient, by any stretch of the imagination.

And money is, of course, Trump’s driving force. For a man of his wealth to be peddling meme coins, trips to Mar-a-Lago, golden shoes, bibles, cards and other nonsense shows over-the-top greed.

Malice: what other motive can justify the maligning of Medicaid and food assistance recipients, the most needy people in the country; the fraudulent claims of fraud in Social Security, a program that keeps people out of poverty; the wholesale chopping of programs meant to allow diverse voices to join conversations. No one who is not white and male and rich — or, barring that, who does not worship white supremacy — is worthy of being heard or valued, no matter their levels of skill, experience, knowledge or need might be. The hatred is palpable: They are “the other,” and they need to be put in their place. Oh, and they cost too much. Malice meets money.

I was raised by parents who lived through Nazi occupation from 1940 to 1945. They seldom talked about all the hardships they endured and the dangers they faced. But we need their wartime driving force today: courage, responsibility, respect, integrity, and compassion must counter the three “ms” of this current administration, as we see history repeating itself.

Governing actions based on muscle, money and malice, under the umbrella of megalomania, will create hardship, dangers and disasters, not prevent them. They should never be the driving force of a government that claims to serve the people.