Life’s Moving Sidewalks: Why We Can’t Let Anyone Stumble Alone Under Trump’s Policies

Trump’s Manufactured Crisis Adds to the Real Struggles of Americans

Guest article by Dina Doll

I’ve been thinking a lot about moving sidewalks lately, similar to the kind in airports, but the real kind life puts under your feet when things feel like they are actually moving forward. You are on it, things are rolling, and then suddenly it ends. You stumble. You reach out for something to catch you. And in that moment, when you are most unsteady, the people around you matter more than ever.

That image has stayed with me because it captures something very real about what is happening in our country right now. On top of the ordinary crises every American faces—cancer diagnoses, aging parents, children who need us, jobs that never feel secure—we are now living through manufactured crises that make those personal struggles feel even heavier.

Recently, the Trump administration froze more than ten billion dollars in federal funds for working families by cutting support to key programs that help everyday Americans afford the basics: the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, the Child Care and Development Fund, and the Social Services Block Grant in five Democratic-led states: California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. These programs, which require families to work to qualify, are lifelines for millions of Americans who are not paid a living wage by corporations that pay little to no income tax. They help families afford childcare so they can hold jobs, keep food on the table, pay utility bills in the winter, and provide housing support for seniors, children, and low-income households. Now, these working families are at the mercy of Trump’s political retribution.

You do not have to live in a blue state to understand what this means. The emergency a parent feels when they cannot pay rent, or a caregiver feels when they do not know how they will afford tomorrow’s medicine, is universal. Add to that the fear that the government is now pausing lifeline support, and it feels like the moving sidewalk we all depend on just vanished.

I have learned from going through crises in my own life that the only way to get through tough times is through them. It is like being on that moving sidewalk, and the sidewalk ends and you stumble, and in that stumble, you need the support of the people around you to prop you up until you can get on that next moving sidewalk—whether it is neighbors, your faith, your family, or your friends.

Thankfully, a federal court has paused Trump’s freeze while litigation over whether he can legally take this action winds through the courts. Even so, this looming threat hangs over working Americans and is just one of many actions Trump has taken that make life harder for millions. From racial profiling that heightens fear and mistrust for people of color to tariffs that squeeze small businesses and raise costs, the pressures on everyday Americans continue to grow.

Trump has manufactured a crisis for so many families on top of the personal, ongoing issues every American goes through, making those moments more difficult and more harsh. And that is precisely why it matters how we respond.

Those of us who are still on the moving sidewalk part of life—the ones who have not slipped yet, who have not felt the ground fall away—have a responsibility. We can do the heavy lifting. We can lift each other up. We can speak out and stand up. Because no one should have to stumble alone.

When someone’s financial aid is frozen without clear cause, when a working parent has to choose between childcare and rent, when a senior waits longer for services because funding is paused, those are not just headlines. They are the daily realities of our neighbors, our communities, our friends, and family.

And through it all, the same truth remains: support is not optional in times of hardship. It is essential. Not just financial support, but human support—presence, empathy, advocacy, outrage—when those in power wield uncertainty as policy.

So when the sidewalk ends, and it will for all of us at some point, let us be the people who lean in, not step back. Let us be the ones who offer a hand, a word of encouragement, an argument in a public square, or a voice for those whose voices have been drowned out by fear.

That is how we get through these moments together and how, eventually, we all find solid ground again.

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