by Frances Murphy (Toni) Draper
As Americans worry whether they’ll get their next paycheck, keep the lights on, or afford dinner tonight, an internal email dated October 31, 2025, from the halls of the U.S. Department of War (formerly the Department of Defense) lands — addressed to “Policy Colleagues,” wishing them a “Happy Halloween” and announcing that the 59-minute early-departure rule is in effect so everyone can get home for trick-or-treating.
The sender? Elbridge A. Colby, Under Secretary of War for Policy.
Let that sink in.
People are being laid off. Budgets are frozen. Contractors are waiting months for payment. Air traffic controllers and TSA officers — the people who keep our skies safe and our airports functioning — are working without pay during this shutdown, trying to stay focused while wondering how to feed their families. Morale across the federal workforce is scraping bottom. And yet, in the corridors of power, someone thought it appropriate to celebrate a secular holiday with early dismissal.
The symbolism couldn’t be clearer.
The Cruelty Is the Point
While ordinary Americans face economic whiplash and mounting uncertainty, government insiders are handing out candy — not compassion. And even as the nation tightens its belt, #47 has already demolished the historic East Wing of the White House to build a sprawling ballroom fit for royalty. A ballroom. While millions struggle to make rent.
This isn’t just tone-deaf. It’s heartless.
True public service calls for empathy, not excess.
Leadership should model sacrifice, not spectacle. True public service calls for empathy, not excess. When government workers are going unpaid, when families are skipping meals, when the most vulnerable are pleading for relief — what message does it send to grant time off for trick-or-treating?
The message is loud and clear: “Our comfort matters more than your hardship.”
Hypocrisy is easy. Indifference takes practice. But moral blindness — the kind that allows a nation’s leaders to lavish themselves with luxury while ignoring hunger in the streets — that’s something else entirely.
And let’s be clear: only Congress has the constitutional authority to create, dissolve, or formally rename a federal department. The president’s September 5, 2025, executive order allows “Department of War” as a secondary or official styling, but the legal name remains the Department of Defense unless Congress changes it.
When Democracy Becomes a Dirty Word
Whatever happened to “government of the people, by the people, for the people”? It’s been looking more like government above the people, apart from the people, against the people — ever since #47 was sworn in.
And now, even the word democracy itself has become suspect — quietly dropped from philanthropic mission statements and placed on “avoid lists” alongside diversity, equity, inclusion, and even Black. When the ideals that define our shared humanity are treated as liabilities, we are in dangerous territory indeed.
Bring Back Compassion and Courage
It’s time to bring compassion back into public service — and courage back into civic life. Leadership is not about privilege, but about responsibility. Until that happens, the rest of us — the people who still believe in justice, empathy, and truth — will keep holding up the mirror.
Because someone must remind those in power what service really means —
that they exist to serve the people, not the other way around.
Dr. Frances Murphy Draper is CEO and publisher of The AFRO-American Newspapers www.afro.com
