Peanuts are a part of my life. As a five-year-old boy in 1942, I rode on the left axle of my father’s Farmall B tractor while he cultivated them. I grew these legumes myself in Bryan County, Oklahoma, in the 1980’s when they were still a major farm crop in the area.
My father only let us buy peanut candy. Was there a brand other than Snickers? He said we needed to support the price of peanuts. My favorite noon meals are still peanut butter sandwiches. We even named our dog “Peanut.” And now, for the rest of the story.
It thrilled me when I learned about a product called Plumpy’Nut. This is a tasty, highly nutritious food made from peanuts grown in the U.S. and processed at a plant in Georgia. It is packaged in easy-toopen containers, requires no refrigeration, and has a long shelf life.
It is called, “The Miracle Paste,” because it saves severely malnourished children from certain death.
Plumpy’Nut is compared to the discovery of penicillin because it prevents death for starving children and brings them back to thriving health. It can be fed by anyone, anywhere. It has saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of African children in famine-ravaged areas (independent.co.uk/news/world/ americas/us-politics/trumpmusk- usaid-cuts-deaths-aids-hivb2708883. html.).
USAID has been one of the major suppliers of Plumpy’Nut. Elon Musk tried to cancel this organization that was set up by Congress, and ordered all the American workers to return. A federal judge ruled that his efforts were “likely illegal and violated the US Constitution” (ABC News, February 7, 2025).
Now Trump has ordered (with no legal authority, apparently) that USAID be folded into the State Dept. and appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as its new head. As of July 1, the agency has been shut down (npr.org).
So Plumpy’Nut and medicine from USAID are unavailable now. Children have starved to death already because they were deprived of Plummpy’Nut, and more continue to die every day, because this unconscionable cancellation has deprived them of life-saving nourishment.
Here is the point I hope to make clear. We are angered, rightly so, when we learn of children near us being starved. The death of a Commerce, Oklahoma, child on September 11, 2024, was shocking. When brought to the Miami, Oklahoma hospital, this two-year-old boy was unresponsive, and he died soon after arriving. He was starved to death. He weighed only 17 pounds, which is the average weight for a 6-month-old infant (yahoo.com/ news/feds-indict-commerce-couple- accused-232917686.html).
In March 2025, those parents were charged with murder (yahoo).
If we are deeply distressed when we learn of a child’s needless death near us, can we also be that concerned if it happens across the Atlantic and on another continent? If these children were in our own state, how would we feel?
Rather than fall victim to the “Out of sight, out of mind,” mentality, I urge everyone to follow the old truism, “The wheel that squeaks loudest gets greased.” We can contact legislators, write letters, talk with friends, and attend meetings where these issues can be discussed.
As shocking as it was when Elon Musk raised his arm in the Sieg Heil Nazi salute, something else he did was even more disturbing. On February 3, 2025, he wrote, “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the woodchipper. Could [have] gone to some great parties. Did that instead” (thehill.com/policy/ technology/5122676-usaid-shutdown- elon-musk-doge).
In his interview on a Joe Rogan show, Musk said, “Empathy is the fundamental weakness of western civilization” (msn.com/en-us/ news/technology/yes-musk-saidthe- fundamental-weakness-ofwestern- civilization).
I utterly repudiate the claim that empathy is a weakness. Nations that care for the underprivileged, poor, and sick remain strong. History’s landscape is littered with nations who did not have empathy. Nazi Germany quickly comes to mind.
At the February, 2025, Cabinet Meeting in the White House, Elon Musk mentioned that Ebola was spreading in Uganda, and he said the USAID program that treated that terrible disease was “accidentally” canceled, but quickly restored. He said, “None of us wants Ebola, do we?” Laughter could be heard from people in attendance.
Musk immediately restored the line-item aid for Ebola because he feared that it might affect him.
Sadly, with the destruction of USAID, distribution of food and medical supplies may never be restored.
When Musk gave his Nazi salute, I thought of how Hitler’s henchmen forced children into the gas chambers. Is killing kids by refusing them food any different than murdering them by violent means? Either way, children are dead. That is a fact. Thus far, those responsible for depriving African children of food have suffered no consequences.
My earnest plea is for Americans to protest these cruel injustices. We love children. Let’s save them. Distributing the miracle food Plumpy’Nut to hungry kids is one important way to do this.