WORKERS OF PATHWAYS

I added the video because it is an important part of the visuals for this story. I am not apologizing for the video because I thought about just publishing the story but the video works for this story. My teacher friend in LA loves the videos and the visuals. I dedicate this to my teacher friend, Ms. Lidia, to my social worker therapist, Elizabeth, to my Nurse, Arapia, and to my caregiver, Rosa.

To be continued as an informative creative protest about the Act THAT ditched Nurses, Teachers, and Social Workers as not professional. The clue to the story is a nurse finds a baby left in front of the hospital. She picks the baby girl up and carries her into the hospital. The nurse, social worker, and teacher all meet at the hospital to care for baby Sofia.

Baby Sofia is the main character in this part of the truth, part fiction story. Sofia has many adventures of evil invade her space in the next chapters. TO BE CONTINUED.

Opening Scene: The Nurse

(Prose with spoken word and song)

The fluorescent hum of the ICU is louder than her heartbeat.

She bends over the patient, steady hands, though her mind is split

half on the monitor, half on the letter that arrived this morning:

“Your profession is no longer recognized.”

Spoken Word:

“They call me not professional,

but I hold breath in my palms,

I stitch time with care,

I carry the flame of survival.”

Song Fragment (chorus-like):

Loan shadows chase me,

but I will not bow.

Care is the rhythm,

and care is the vow.

The cancellation is not just a bureaucratic note, it is a theft of dignity.

Yet in this room, where machines beep like broken bells,

she declares herself sovereign:

“I am the Worker of Pathways.

I am the nurse who feeds the flame.”

Opening Scene: The Teacher

(Prose with spoken word and song)

The chalk dust rises like incense,

but the classroom feels hollow,

the letter arrived before the first bell:

“Your profession is no longer recognized.”

She stacks lesson plans like fragile towers,

knowing the scaffolding of support has been stripped away.

Still, she faces the rows of empty desks as if they were altars.

Spoken Word:

“They call me not professional,

but I carry the rhythm of futures.

I plant seeds in soil they have abandoned,

I teach the flame to speak.”

Song Fragment (chorus-like):

Erase my title,

but not my vow.

Knowledge is sovereign,

and care is now.

The cancellation is not just a decree, it is a silencing.

Yet she raises her voice,

turning lesson into protest,

protest into ceremony:

“I am the Worker of Pathways.

I am the teacher who feeds the flame.”

Opening Scene: The Social Worker/Counselor

(Prose with spoken word and song)

The living room is a battlefield of silence.

A child clings to a torn blanket,

a parent stares at the floor,

and she holds the fragile threads together with her voice.

The decree arrived yesterday:

“Your profession is no longer recognized.”

But the family in front of her does not care about titles

they care about survival.

Spoken Word:

“They call me not professional,

but I cradle the fracture.

I stitch broken kinship with care,

I hold the archive of need.”

Song Fragment (chorus-like):

Erase my pathway,

but not my flame.

Care is sovereign,

and care has a name.

The cancellation is not just a bureaucratic erasure—it is a wound.

Yet she rises in the fracture,

declaring:

“I am the Worker of Pathways.

I am the counselor who feeds the flame.”

Voiceover: The Big Beautiful Bill Act

(Tone: solemn, sovereign, mythic protest)

“They called it the Big Beautiful Bill Act.

They said it would streamline care.

But what it did was erase us.

Nurses. Teachers. Social Workers.

Reclassified.

Not Professional.

Not recognized.

Not sovereign.

But we are the ones who cradle the fracture.

We are the ones who vow the flame.

We are the ones who show up when systems fail.

This bill was not beautiful.

It was a bureaucratic blade.

And we respond with protest.

With care.

With ceremony.

With archive.”

Narrator/Creator

They said Nursing was empathy, they said Teaching was inspiration. They could not even name what a Social Worker was. They reduced the profession to a clipboard and a signature, a simple case file.

Narrator/Creator

But tell me the truth: What is the code for a child who has nowhere to sleep? What is the statute for a parent facing an impossible choice? To know the law, the mandate, the obscure grant application is the professional shield.

The Archive/Flame

Mastery of the acronyms is the first act of defense. Knowing the policy is professional, knowing the broken system is sovereign. This is not paperwork. This is fire.

CARE IS FLAME.

written, created, edited by

Vicki Lawana Trusselli

Trusselli Art

Outstages Cafe Production

copyright 2025

California

TO BE CONTINUED.........