You’re Fired
How to destroy the nation’s mental infrastructure.
Behind the scenes our public servants attempt to make science based, moral decisions. Science based moral leaders in the EPA, the military, NOAA, NASA, and all federal agencies find it increasingly hard to function.
In previous columns I have dropped many names of reputable public servants who have become casualties of our current administration. This time I am going to focus on one, an American patriot who has flown under my radar, Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer.
Admiral Ziemer grew up the son of Christian Missionaries in Indochina. His father died in a North Vietnamese attack on the mission clinic during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
In 1964 Tim Ziemer started studies at a religious college, Wheaton, in Illinois. After graduation he joined the Navy and became a helicopter pilot volunteering to fly in Vietnam. Z, as his fellow aviators called him, flew 550 missions over the Mekong Delta with the Sea Wolf Squadron. Some of his missions were extracting Navy Seals in dangerous predicaments.
He eventually became a rear admiral. To become a rear admiral (O-8), the equivalent of a Major General in the Army, you must pass seven promotion boards. In this process senior officers in your chain of command evaluate your record to see if you have not only mastered your current responsibilities but they look to see if you have shown determination, often by engaging in educational opportunities, to meet the challenges of the next higher rank you aspire to. The promotion board then reviews your documents and decides to promote or not.
As an officer progresses, he must integrate the skills he has acquired with an ability to see, “The Big Picture” and develop the skills needed to communicate both up and down the chain of command. To become the equivalent of a two-star general, Tim Ziemer had demonstrated these skills many times.
After retirement, Rear Admiral Ziemer applied his skills to humanitarian service. He accepted leadership of “World Relief” an organization of 5,000 churches determined to meet the critical needs of the world’s most impoverished people.
In 2006 President G.W. Bush tapped him to head the “President’s Malaria Initiative.” He planned to resign after the election of President Obama but his draft resignation letter was denied. Rather than pursue another line of work he reconsidered and stuck with the job. During his tenure the incidence of malaria was reduced 40%. That is a reduction from 1,000,000 infected people to 600,000 saving 400,000 people from the ravages of the disease.
Here is a review of his work by the New York Times in 2018: Although he does nothing to court publicity in status-obsessed Washington, many malaria fighters call him one of the most quietly effective leaders in public health. “All the organizations fighting malaria work more closely than they did eight years ago,” said Ray Chambers, the private equity investor and co-founder of Malaria No More who is now the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Malaria. “I think that’s due in no small part to Tim and his personality. He’s not seeking individual credit and he works for the team — but his trains run on time.”
From April 2017 to July 2018, Ziemer was appointed by President Trump to be the Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the National Security Council.
In May of 2018 Ziemer was effectively fired. His team either resigned or were reassigned to different posts. With this action the Trump White House had effectively removed the senior official(s) whose sole focus was global health security focusing on combating pandemics and protecting us from bioterrorism.
I look at our nation as a body with many legs and arms where, to survive, we put our trust in a few educated moral heads. These heads, men and women leaders, earned their positions at the top by demonstrating competence and not political ideological purity. As we watch these heads blown away, whether it be within the EPA, NSC, NASA, NOAA, or the State Department we must realistically ask ourselves when our arms and legs will cease to function.
A couple weeks ago, on Public Radio, I listened to a Chinese doctor plead for us to take the Corona Virus seriously. In one evening, he had watched five of his patient’s arms and legs stop wiggling. You could hear the emotional toll the disease had taken on him as he watched his patients die.
As I watch our nation slide into science ignorance, especially regarding climate, I see less and less wiggle in our future.
Let’s hope and pray we pass this test beating the virus and preserving our good health.
In November we will get our chance to elect educated dedicated leaders who understand science and are able to face the challenges today and the ones our kids will face. To ensure success we need to elect leaders who understand and respect science, are morally well grounded, and exhibit unifying leadership like Tim Ziemer.
Sources for this column: The Science Times, Wikipedia, The Atlantic, the New York Times, The Washington Post, and Esquire’s article: “Who the Hell wants another four more years of this?”
Letter by Adm Zimmer OCT 23rd, 2017: Fired May 2018: https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/securing-global-health-u-s-leadership/
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