To the Editor:

It feels more and more like our country is living out its own version of “The Hunger Games.”

In the novels, the Capitol grows rich while the Districts do all the work. The Capitol keeps them divided, feeding propaganda so no one notices who’s hoarding the wealth. Sound familiar?

Here’s the reality: California, New York, and other so-called “blue states” send tens of billions more to Washington each year than they ever get back. Meanwhile, red states depend on federal programs to keep hospitals open and farms afloat.

Both sides are essential — one drives innovation, tech, and finance; the other powers agriculture, energy, and manufacturing. Yet instead of recognizing that interdependence, we’re pitted against one another in endless red-versus-blue battles, while the wealthiest corporations and individuals pocket permanent tax cuts.

That’s the real Capitol. They’ve built a system where nurses can’t get safe staffing, farmers can’t make ends meet, rural hospitals and nursing homes close, and public schools are starved of funding — while their own children attend private, privileged academies and jet to other countries to eat caviar.

On top of it all, they are mass deporting the very workers who keep our economy standing — the field hands, carpenters, and laborers. If that continues, every American will feel it in soaring food prices, broken supply chains, and hollowed-out communities.

And maybe that’s the point. Keep people hungry, poor, and uneducated, and they’ll be too burdened by daily struggles to see what’s really happening behind closed doors. Because at the end of the day, this is all a game — and in this version of the Games, both red and blue are losers. The only winners are the wealthy who control the rules.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has warned that our actual democracy itself is in danger. 

He’s right. 

Strip away the labels and most of us want the same things: safe schools for our children, dignity for our elders, hospitals that heal, safe food we can afford, and a government that rewards work — not just wealth. This is something the current administration does not want for us.

The Games only continue if we play along. Maybe it’s time the “districts” of America remembered they have more in common with one another than with the Capitol and that together, we have the power to make sure the odds are finally in our favour.

Emily Vincent, RN, BSN, PHN, Shepherd

Berne