EDITOR’S COLUMN – Time to speak up

“Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason toward my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.” ― Patrick Henry

I try not to put national news items in this space because we are a local community newspaper, but I don’t feel like what is happening now can go unrecorded. I don’t want that on my conscience down the road. 

No matter who you voted for in November, the last time I checked, Elon Musk wasn’t on anyone’s ballot. Well, maybe someone wrote in his name somewhere, but that’s not who we elected. 

So why is the world’s richest man, who has billions of dollars tied up in Chinese business agreements and federal government contracts (the literal definition of “conflict of interest”), to say nothing of exceedingly questionable personal behavior, getting a free pass to send half a dozen of his own civilian employees — none of whom have any kind of authority or security clearance — into a federal agency where they breached computer systems containing the personal financial information of millions of Americans — Social Security numbers, tax ID numbers, and who knows what else. 

Imagine, if you will, one of our richer-than-Croesus “upriver folk” sending a handful of their hired hands into the county budget and finance office, despite the protests of county staff, to download all the personal information available on every county employee, every taxpaying citizen, every property owner, etc. And when asked why, said rich person explains that they are close confidants with one of the commissioners, donated lots of money to the last local campaign, and have now been tasked with cleaning up the county’s budget and cutting off any “unnecessary” employee or program they personally deem unworthy. 

I’d think — I would hope — we’d be up in arms, literally. 

And it’s entirely possible you didn’t hear about any of this in real time, because most of the national news organizations didn’t even start mentioning the event until three days after it occurred. 

Are we seriously OK with this, my fellow Americans? 

If you’re not… or even if you are… consider contacting your elected representatives in Congress by phone, letter, email, carrier pigeon, or in person. 

In our Constitutional Republic, we elect people to represent us in government. In order to represent someone, or a group of someones, those elected folks need to hear from the people they’re supposed to be representing. 

If we don’t speak up, en masse, then the only voices they’re going to hear are the ones who are lining their pockets to keep them in power. 

Call your elected representatives:

Sen. John Hickenlooper

(202) 224-5941

hickenlooper.senate.gov

374 Russell Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510

Sen. Michael Bennet

(202) 224-5852

bennet.senate.gov

261 Russell Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510

Rep. Jeff Hurd

(202) 225-4676

hurd.house.gov

1641 Longworth House Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20515