The Well is Poisoned, Impressions From Springfield

This article was originally published on The Heartland Beat

SPRINGFIELD - As the Trump administration and The Department of Government Efficiency continue to make headlines after the seismic dismantling of USAID and continued reports of deportations, others are pointing out that the federal government's long standing history of throwing our tax dollars into a fire pit continues through multiple other organizations and functions, with lingering questions on who is doing it, and how to spot it.

The much bespoken collapse of the city of Springfield, while somewhat predating the recent Haitian invasion, is most easily witnessed presently within the finer details of federal grants and programs given to the city under the guise of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives to try and handle all of the increased cultural enrichment the city has endured. While the old adage of ‘follow the money’ can be easily repeated by armchair political theorists, it can be much harder when diving into the finer details of government spending to inquire on how those dollars were spent and what impact those programs had on the region.

According to Highergov, the City of Springfield has received, between grants and contracts from the Federal government, around $183 Million since the early 2000s. These grants range in levels of DEI appropriation and designation from opioid focused mental health subsidization aimed at black communities specifically, to grants aimed at rapid rehousing of the homeless and providing community outreach to at risk populations.

Within the confines of computer sciences, there is a phrase “a system is what it does.” In order to investigate whether something is truly wasteful, one has to evaluate what the purpose of the expenditure was and how it was effectively utilized, or rather, what the outcome of it was. If a systems response to being inundated with cash flow is complete chaos and deconstruction of support for those who paid for it, then the answer to “is this wasteful” is obvious.

In September 2024, Springfield was awarded a $160,000 federal grant for the purpose or repurposing structures and buildings into warming centers as well as provide for the rapid rehousing of homeless in their city.

How did the city utilize these funds exactly? The is currently unknown. What is known is that local law enforcement was, reportedly under the direction of city commissioners, ordered to shut down private citizens who were attempting to provide firewood to homeless encampments ahead of the coldest day of the winter season between December and January, when warming shelters were not readily available or publicized. What you paid for was support for the homeless. What you seemingly received was police deterrence of their support followed by begrudging support by the local government amid public outcry, funded to the tune of $160,000. Was this wasteful?

The city of Springfield was additionally provided a total of $3.9 million across three different grants from the U.S. Department of Justice. BJA FY 23 Office of Justice Programs Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative - 1.6 million, BJA FY24 Smart Reentry: Housing Demonstration Program - 1 million, BJA FY 22 Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Site-based Program - 1.3 million. These grants were all awarded with some level of DEI initiative tied into them.

The issuing agency of all of this tax payer money defines itself thusly:

Of striking importance in their self-description that their goal is to “increase access to justice, support crime victims and individuals impacted by the justice system, strengthen community safety and protect the public from crime and evolving threats, and builds trust between law enforcement and the community.”

Over the last year, The Springfield police department, Clark County court systems and local government have failed to prosecute misdemeanor crimes of Haitian immigrants, some believe for fear of their deportation. Some have even argued local leadership as well as NGO heads may have potentially profited from housing developments owned by local leadership being rented out to Haitian Migrants while Springfielder’s are being displaced, adding to the growing homeless population. The local government has additionally done very little to even speak out against a legitimized human trafficking operation displacing Heritage Springfield workers, and encrypted police dispatch communications so the public cannot listen to what is or is not being done to keep them safe, or lack thereof.

Most recently, an “unknown” driver in Springfield made headlines by striking a child in a school crosswalk and speeding away. News reports have quoted the report from local law enforcement who omitted the vehicle’s owner’s name from the accident report because they could not prove “who was driving the vehicle.” The vehicle was eventually found by LEO’s with no further action noted.

Bear in mind, the report isn’t asking for “driver name.” It is asking for vehicle owner name. A name that, with a valid VIN and plate number, SPD absolutely knows, and at this point, anyone with a $25 dollar VIN tracking program subscription also knows.

Typical police work should have led LEOs to immediately track down the owner of said vehicle, which was recently sold from a dealership in Dayton Ohio called Elite Auto in January 2024 and that has a current lien from Kemba Credit Union, to the home of the owner as a primary mechanism of questioning and investigation.

The fact this crime has not already been solved when the general public, through publicly available information gathering means, is currently able to find a potential suspect faster than SPD who received millions in grant programs is insulting to every resident of Springfield and anyone outside has paid for federal taxes. For the cost of $3.9 million in federal funding, do you feel any news report about a child hit and run should ever end with “No one was cited due to being unable to prove who was driving?” Is this increasing access to justice and supporting crime victims? Does this increase trust in law enforcement? Is this wasteful spending?

Outside of indescribable government waste, there has been the nonstop kvetching from nongovernmental organizations, or NGO’s, primarily churches, who have been hit the hardest from the shut down of USAID and further DOGE actions. No more will they be able to rake in hundreds of millions, or even billions in some cases, for the purpose of replacement of the national populace under the auspices of resettling migrants or other ‘charitable’ services.

While Lutheran Services was the the most readily targeted in the most recent political crossfire, make no mistake, it is all of them, from Catholic Charities to Jewish Family services.

However, these types of federal subsidies for native replacement migration to churches are seemingly on the backstep. As popular opinion continues to shift towards shutting down these operations, the increasing concern is that the funding streams will become more privatized and harder to pin down.

Within Springfield, a church known as the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, Ohio recently made local headlines after the inauguration of President Trump due to the alleged concerns of their congregation over potential deportation. The church itself was launched in November, 2022 by the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

The C&MA, as it is colloquially known, has received millions in grants from the Lilly Endowment. The Lilly Endowment, is of course, the philanthropic arm of the pharmaceutical corporation Eli Lilly and Company, whose products run the gamut from SSRI’s to vaccines.

So in short, when you buy Lilly products, the proceeds from the endowment stock shares go towards organizations that are aiding in facilitating replacement migration. Remember, a ‘system is what it does.’

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