To The Reader’s Forum:

We the People have a problem. There is an unelected businessman, a private citizen-never even served as a public official in any capacity- who has breached part (USAID) of our US Government employment payment records and systems. Elon Musk’s team of college students his experts now access and can download all of the information. Snowden was found guilty of downloading and sharing US files and newspapers are found guilty and fined for invading an individual’s personal records.

This isn’t a Republican/Democratic, left-right, liberal-libertarian-conservative problem. This is a huge problem for everyone in this country. It isn’t only data on “those” people! We all become “those” people on any given day. Call your Congressperson and Senators. They know it is their Constitutional responsibility, and theirs alone, to propose and vote on the programs and funding that We the People have said is important to the safety and well-being of all citizens of the United States. Any President can veto those decisions, and Congress can try to get enough votes to override that veto. It’s the law, and we all live with the variations and the decisions-good and bad.

Every few years, political parties disagree and make changes-large and small. But never have we imagined that a government employee-voted in by We the People- would direct an unelected, non-Congressionally approved billionaire to close programs for which Congress had already approved funding, and invade the employment and personnel data. Is the next step downloading the data on to personal servers?

We the People are standing on the shoulders of brave people who founded this nation and helped create our Constitution with its system of making sure no one part of government can get too much power over the others. If Congress decides that any program isn’t good, they propose a change or a “get rid of it” and then our Congress votes. But Elon Musk isn’t part of that system. When we all voted last November, Musk wasn’t one of the options for President.

We the People. Not the Billionaire’s Club. We the People.

Deborah First

Chautauqua