When every email inbox in the division pinged with a new message at 5:07 p.m. on Friday, the staff collectively held their breath.
But it wasn’t the dismissal notification that these employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been waiting for. Quite the opposite: It was, the subject line said, a “love letter.”
As I sit down to write this letter, I am not sure what the future holds. However, I do know how important it feels for me to send these words. So here goes….
The author was Sarah Roby, a health communications specialist in the C.D.C.’s injury center, and the note would be read and reread throughout the weekend by her colleagues as they awaited their fate. The recipients worked in the injury center’s division of violence prevention, which focused on driving down rates of child abuse, sexual violence and gun deaths by collecting data, funding research and rolling out state and local programs that used evidence-based strategies.
I imagine most of us are filled with anxiety and fear right now. As my own anxiety and fear ebb and flow, I am also filled with an immense sense of gratitude and love.