Lewis: When a stranger calls
It was a normal Wednesday — the one day I have a routine. I rise early, pull on jeans and a hoodie, gulp some coffee, and head to my job building homes in Gypsum. It’s not a paid gig. A group of us retired folks volunteer every week, working alongside staff, contractors, and other volunteers through Habitat for Humanity.
One standout group we’ve worked with recently was AmeriCorps. Their crew showed up daily ready to work — young, upbeat, mission-driven. A few weeks ago, they were even written up in the Vail Daily for their contributions to the community. And then, suddenly, they were gone.
No farewell. No ceremony. Just gone.
We soon learned they’d been terminated — another casualty of the cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The notification was as abrupt as it was unclear. The staff was visibly shaken. One of them turned to me and said, “You should write a column about this.”
I went home that night and did exactly that.
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The first version of my column was pretty straightforward. I defended AmeriCorps as a program that actually works — a low-cost, high-impact initiative that allows young adults to serve their country while helping local communities like ours. It’s not an arguably useless trillion-dollar jet fighter in the era of thousand-dollar drones. It’s not a Mars mission with no clear return on investment. It’s a rare thing: a win-win.
I titled it “Incompetence.” I wrote that DOGE’s failure to distinguish between bloated bureaucracy and essential public service must stem from mismanagement. How could an agency with such a clear mandate — cut waste, eliminate fraud — be doing such obvious harm?
Satisfied, I went to bed.
Then, around 2 a.m., I sat bolt upright. Cold sweat. I realized I’d been wrong.
It wasn’t incompetence.
It was intentional.
The scariest movie I ever saw was “When a Stranger Calls.” No gore, no chainsaws — just perfect psychological timing. A babysitter alone in a house gets creepy phone calls: “Have you checked the children?” She calls the police, who promise to trace the next one. When it comes, they call back in panic: “The call is coming from inside the house!”
That’s what hit me in the middle of the night.
If this were just about cutting government fat, DOGE would start with the obvious targets. The Pentagon has begged for years to axe weapons systems it doesn’t need. One unnecessary fighter jet program could fund tens of thousands of AmeriCorps workers, firefighters, IRS revenue collectors, and Social Security support staff.
But those aren’t the cuts DOGE is making.
Instead, DOGE employees are taking scalpels — and sometimes chainsaws — to the programs that form the backbone of communities. Forest Service firefighting crews. IRS staff who ensure people actually pay taxes. Social Security call centers. And yes, AmeriCorps teams who show up in places like Eagle County to build homes and restore trails and mentor kids.
You’d be hard-pressed to look at these cuts and call them “waste.” You’d be harder-pressed to believe they’re accidental.
When I first wrote my column, my conclusion was that Elon Musk and his DOGE team must be idiots to fail this badly, given such a clear goal. But that just doesn’t fit. I have met Musk, and one thing is certain — he’s no idiot. As I thought about it, I realized that DOGE should be child’s play for him.
That’s when it hit me: the people running DOGE aren’t incompetent. Far from it. They know exactly what they’re doing. The destruction we’re seeing isn’t a bug. It’s the feature.
The lofty talk about “efficiency” was just the packaging — rhetoric designed to lull us into thinking this was about better government. But if you judge by actions, not words, the mission was never about fixing government. It was about hollowing it out.
I no longer believe DOGE is failing. I believe it’s succeeding — just not at the job we all thought it was given.
To my friends at AmeriCorps: I’m sorry it ended this way. You showed up, you worked hard, and you made this community better. You’ll be missed in Eagle County.
And to the rest of us: it might be time to check the house.
Mark Lewis, a Colorado native, had a long career in technology, including serving as the CEO of several tech companies. He’s now retired and writes thriller novels. Mark and his wife, Lisa, and their two Australian Shepherds — Kismet and Cowboy, reside in Edwards.
