Why didn’t I say something?
I’m regretting another case of “Why didn’t I say something?” on Wednesday afternoon, when a large group of elders (including me) were quietly walking around the Waterfront Park, demonstrating our concern about Trump’s recent fire hose of malfeasance. A large man bellowed gleefully over the crowd, “Trump is going to fix everything!”
Wish I had stopped to engage him in a real conversation, maybe beginning with “What has Trump fixed so far? WHAT exactly do you want him to fix?” I’m one of those folks who have never understood Trump’s appeal, and therefore can’t understand why so many people look to him for leadership. Fortunately, he still does not hold a majority of support in this country. Unfortunately, that isn’t stopping him from doing a lot of reckless damage. His current “fixes” include:
- Indiscriminately decimating the Civil Service — those people who do the actual work of the Federal government, all over our nation;
- Inviting an unelected oligarch without security clearance and with clear conflicts of interest to break into our Treasury Department and turn it over to young coders who are currently busily reworking payment systems for Social Security, Veterans, Medicaid, small businesses and nonprofits, other agencies. (What could possibly go wrong?);
- Abolishing USAID and heading in that direction with our Department of Education;
- Purging the FBI of agents and attorneys who participated in the Jan. 6 investigations;
- “Owning” Gaza, Greenland, the Panama Canal;
- Starting a tariff war with Canada and Mexico;
- Undoing birthright citizenship (Unconstitutional);
- Renaming the Gulf of Mexico (pointless);
- Ordering the U.S. military to do immigration work; requiring states to help ICE (both illegal); and …
- naming a Fox News contributor to head up the Department of Defense, and a guy with a brain worm who left a bear carcass in Central Park to head up Health and Human Services, among other (questionable) nominations for the Cabinet.
Trump and his motley crew are simply sowing chaos throughout our nation and the world in service of … what? Making America Great Again? He is breaking things. What is he fixing?
While I sympathize with the need to turn away from this chaos, we can’t. Until we lose it, we still have government by the people. That’s us. I have to pay attention. Oh, and I will occasionally gather with other concerned citizens. Maybe that conversation that didn’t happen still can, sometime.
— Carol Brown, Beaufort
Call your Senators today
Last year U.S. companies spent more than $80 billion on cybersecurity to protect their data and yours. Yet some of your most personal data — social security numbers, bank routing numbers, tax data, credit card numbers, etc. — has been handed over to an unelected billionaire and his unvetted DOGE team, none of whom have security clearances. What could possibly go wrong?
The DOGE team does not follow standard cybersecurity protocols. By handing them our most sensitive data, we are essentially opening the door to criminals and foreign adversaries who are always looking for ways to breach our systems. We’ve just rolled out the “welcome mat” for them.
This is not a partisan issue. Regardless of who you voted for, your data is now at risk. I urge you to call our elected officials today and let them know this is not okay.
Senator Lindsay Graham: (843) 849-3887; Senator Tim Scott: (843) 727-4525.
I called these numbers and I spoke to actual human beings, not answering machines. And the people I spoke to were very respectful.
— Peter Birschbach, Port Royal
