Elon Musk’s net worth is about $330 billion. The CEO of Hunger Free America estimates it would cost $25 billion to end hunger in the U.S. Despite this, Musk prioritizes his own interests over social issues. Can he empathize with everyday families, given his wealthy background?
President Donald Trump and his loyalists have big smiles, words of hope, promises of greater things to come! There is no regard for you, for our families. Don’t kid yourself. These people are looking at us with contempt, dehumanizing our needs; they are lying and deceiving like we can be talked over and roped in by promises that will never come true.
Fear is alive today. Fear comes when we hear they may rid the U.S. of entitlements such as Social Security. Fear comes when the major breadwinner of a family is holding a government job. Fear comes from hearing our president say that any school, state or organization that disagrees with him may be cut off from funding and watching our president and Musk promote Tesla in front of the White House instead of strategizing the betterment of our individual rights. Fear comes if you are an LGBTQ person or a minority. Fear comes to many with visas who are worried about being kicked out of the country or when Trump is alienating many countries but Vladimir Putin’s.
We need to take direct action! We can have influence by boycotting, demonstrating, reaching out to our representatives and forcing conversations. We can make sure the government is focusing on us instead of stifling our individual freedoms. We are supposed to be the government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Decisions made today by Trump and his minions will affect our children and our children’s children for years to come.
Is this the legacy you want to leave?
— Martha Newlin, Aurora
Hold Musk to account
Like many Americans, I have followed Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency budget reductions. As a 76-year-old, I have seen my share of government waste; however; Musk’s methods lack clarity and direction as he has demonstrated by proudly holding a chain saw as he chain-saws the budget.
Massively firing staff at the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, medical research facilities, veterans hospitals and other agencies will cause necessary services to be eliminated and likely place our personal data at risk.
I urge Congress to hold open hearings, get answers from Musk and hold him accountable. If elected members of Congress, sworn to serve Americans, don’t do this, they should be voted out of office.
— Dennis Murphy, Beloit, Wisconsin
Finding cost savings
Recently, Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency recommended closing Social Security offices, including the Rockford office that is paying $36,768 a year to lease the building. Ouch!
There are multiple Social Security Administration offices in the Chicago area; if they all are paying similar leases, that’s expensive, and costs should be reduced.
As a marketing agency owner, the lesson I learned is that Musk’s decision made me look where I am wasting money in my business and to fix it.
It’s a tough but well-needed lesson.
— Robert Smith, Robert Smith Communications, Machesney Park
Do Christians approve?
I’m curious. How exactly do the majority of Republicans feel about Elon Musk and his antics?
Do they approve of Musk appearing at the Oval Office casually dressed in a T-shirt and baseball cap? Is it an intentional attempt to be more relatable to the common man? If so, it’s not working; we know he’s a billionaire. Musk’s casual Friday attire just shows his arrogance and disrespect for American government.
And what about Musk flaunting his son Lil X at the Oval Office? Which brings me to my last question. Granted, the White House is no stranger to questionable moral behavior, but I’m curious how conservative Christians feel about the man advising the president having fathered 14 children with four women. Or about him preferring to use in vitro fertilization and surrogates.
Just curious.
— Patti Hodge, St. Charles
Voice of America
There is general agreement by most Americans that there is waste, fraud and redundancy in government.
One example of possible redundancy is Voice of America. It is a World War II propaganda tool used by the United States to expose the adversaries of our country to our version of “the truth.”
All is not lost! Facebook, Twitter, Truth Social, TikTok, Instagram and many other social media platforms also serve that function. Just read some of the various postings by Americans on these sites, and you will get a really good dose of what American “truth” appears to be.
I, for one, am not worried about other countries suffering, or plotting against us, because they are denied information about American values. It’s out there already.
— Susan Haley, Oak Brook
Shame on Schumer
Democrats go on and on, blathering about taking the high road, when they are actually weak and spineless. They disgust me, and I will not donate one more penny to the Democrats until they start putting men and women with some courage and outrage up for election. Take a page from U.S. Rep. John Larson from Connecticut.
U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin need to resign in shame.
— Karen Evan, Glen Ellyn
Distortion of justice
President Donald Trump spoke to a Justice Department audience on Friday. In the ultimate of ironies, he promised to target his perceived enemies even while claiming to end the weaponization of the Justice Department.
In a sense, Trump is right: These Justice Department investigators are indeed his enemies. Why? Because criminals are their enemy, and Trump, a convicted felon, is a criminal, by definition.
Trump called them “scum” and identified some by name. This is the same Trump who chose to pardon and set free actual criminals, those who were convicted for their part in the violent insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, some of whom viciously attacked and seriously injured 140 police officers on that horrible day.
Trump’s behavior is beyond despicable and is extremely dangerous. He is trying to intimidate and delegitimize the very officials who are sworn to uphold our laws and protect us from criminals like him. Such a distortion of justice is what leads to autocracy.
This is completely unacceptable. This cannot stand.
— Bob Chimis, Elmwood Park
Reduce mail service
The U.S. Postal Service should reduce the number of days for residential mail delivery per week and implement 10-hour workdays for most employees. Postal vehicle use would be reduced, resulting in lower expenses and fewer emissions.
Postal employees would enjoy the benefit of working four days a week.
— Elliot Cohen, Lincolnshire
Improve the USPS
I am strongly against the privatization of the U.S. Postal Service. Rather than a profit-oriented business, the USPS is a public service belonging to a hallowed tradition dating to the presidency of George Washington that unites all Americans in all parts of the country.
Certainly, as David Williams points out in his letter “USPS incompetence” (March 13), too many pieces of mail, sometimes even my own financial correspondence of utmost importance, are returned as “undeliverable,” and this is frustrating.
But the USPS has an apparatus to redress and investigate these mistakes, and I find it hard to believe that for-profit private delivery services would demonstrate the same diligence.
Last summer, a large package of mine worth hundreds of dollars was returned as undeliverable by the private UPS, and there was no apparatus for me to make an appeal. My letters to UPS were ignored, whereas such indifference has never been the case with the USPS.
Although I freely recognize the flaws of the USPS, I stand with U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (“Trump’s plan to privatize Postal Service should be stamped ‘return to sender,’” March 10) in support of the USPS.
Please, let’s improve what we already have instead of starting over with an unknown quantity.
— Jack Shreve, Chicago
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