Keep our private lives private, please
This summer, the Supreme Court and another court on Aug. 12 let the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) dig into our personal records — Social Security numbers, bank accounts, medical files, tax returns, and more. They can now see information some folks don’t even tell their best friends.
Before this, laws like the Privacy Act of 1974 kept government offices from sharing all our private info with each other. Those “firewalls” were there to protect us. But DOGE breaks down those walls. Now, four 19- to 24-year-olds can see almost everything about us in one place.
That’s dangerous. Our information could be sold, stolen, leaked, or used to make a few rich while hurting the rest of us. Some believe the real plan is to build personal profiles on every American.
The Social Security Administration already catches fraud. The “dead people getting checks” story is just a scare tactic. They want us to think SSA is “broken” so they can privatize it — hand it to big business — and we’d lose the program we’ve paid into all our lives.
If leaders really cared, they’d make the wealthy pay into Social Security all year like we do. Right now, people who make more than $168,600 stop paying once they hit that amount.
We need to speak up. This isn’t about helping us. It’s about control. And if we don’t protect our privacy now, we may not have any left.
Betty Gray
Trenton, Georgia
Congress ignores Trump’s harms
My goodness, you worthless Republican Congress members. Trump is grifting in plain sight. He is selling sponsorships of White House events. He seized the Kennedy Center. He is selling federal buildings. He is attacking institutions. He is defying court orders. He’s manipulating the market.
He has weaponized the DOJ. He got rid of food safety. He got rid of disease control. He wants to destroy public lands. He wants to mine seabeds in international waters. He is extorting minerals from other nations. He gave an unelected oligarch access to government data. He is hiding the documents proving sexual assault of girls. He has broken trust with our allies. He has weakened global confidence in America.
Here’s something you care about: His poll numbers are underwater on every single issue with Republicans. It has been 135 days. America will not survive four years. Stand up. Do something.
Michael W. Smith
Martin, GOP support for vouchers wrong
Greg Martin, a total disaster for Tennessee. Still supporting Gov. Bill Lee’s so-called “voucher” scheme. A horrible idea, pushed by out-of-state special interests who don’t care about Tennessee kids. This is a massive waste of your taxpayer dollars, money that should be going to our great public schools, not to some politically connected private schools with worse results. Everyone knows it.
Just look at the numbers. Kids do worse; the taxpayer money is more and the only people who win are the lobbyists.
No, thank you. Tennesseans deserve smart leadership, not this failed, phony program. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Andrew Stephenson