We all know that what media we consume says a lot about who we are as individuals. One source of media I have always been enamored with since I was a child was movies. I loved seeing fictional characters and plot lines come alive on my living room television.

So many characters danced across my screen growing up, but one who always stood out to me was Forrest Gump. I loved how through hard work Forrest was able to have a successful and honorable military career, start a business in honor of his friend Bubba who passed in battle, run across the country, and have a family of his own.

Come to find out in my junior year English class, the theme I was so struck by was the “American Dream.” Coming from a middle-class family myself, seeing characters who work hard and get rewarded in the end was touching and hit close to home.

Today, many people like Forrest who are seeking their “American Dream” by working for our country are getting laid off with little to no explanation by the Trump administration. According to ABC News, more than 200,000 federal workers from over 12 federal agencies have been terminated.

One example of this is Brian Gibbs, one of the roughly estimated 1000 National Park Service employees who were fired. Gibbs worked as an Education Park Ranger and is now going viral after sharing his testimony on social media.

On his Facebook post, Gibbs described his unexpected termination. “Access to my government email was denied mid-afternoon and my position was ripped out from out under my feet after my shift was over at 3:45 pm on a cold snowy Friday. Additionally, before I could fully print off my government records, I was also locked out of my electronic personal file that contained my secure professional records.”

Many of the people who are getting fired abruptly are hires who are on a probationary period, a normal phase for semi-new and new workers. According to an interview Gibbs did with Today.com, he was warned by his supervisor the day of his expulsion that he and other full time probationary workers were at risk of termination via email.

Gibbs is just a mere example of this within the thousands of others who are facing the same thing.

We are not just firing innocent people who are trying to put food on the table for their families, but we are firing people who truly keep this country together.

Without ample employees in the Department of Education, Agriculture, Veteran Affairs, and more, who will teach the children sitting in classrooms eager to learn and provide them with equal opportunities? Who will put food on our tables, ensure that it is safe, and address national hunger? Who will provide the people who risked their lives in the military with benefits?

Shutting these offices down puts us all at risk of facing these consequences.

These questions are real. These problems are real. We cannot have a smooth-running country without these employees. It doesn’t take abnormal intelligence to realize this, just empathy. Regardless of political affiliation, advocacy for our federal employees needs to start now. Without the “Forrest Gumps” of the world, we have nothing.