Think of the excellence of the system we have now. Anyone can go to the local council or the County Legislature and say their piece without fear.

I have never worried the police will come to my door because of something I wrote in the paper. I have never been afraid to call my representative and express my support, or sometimes my opposition to something they were doing.

I am truly afraid that all of that may be about to change. We have never seen such chaos. These are not normal times.

Arbitrarily changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America is a way to exert power over others. It’s a way to say the truth is what we say it is. Not what you know it is or what the rest of the world says it is.

The Associated Press, an international news organization, has been banned from the White House pressroom and Air Force One for not using Gulf of America. This is a major violation of the First Amendment. This lack of respect for the constitution should not go unnoticed.

Normally if someone is going to conduct an audit, they bring auditors who look at the books. Elon Musk did not go into the Treasury Department with auditors he went in with programmers. He locked civil servants out of their workplaces and downloaded all kinds of data. It was a theft of the entire system, Breathtaking in its boldness.

Normally the auditor makes a report then Congress discusses cutting off payment. They debate the merits of the program, like USAID. Congress appropriated money to pay American Farmers for food that is given away overseas. DOGE froze the Agencies account. This caused Chaos.

There are U.S. farmers depending on those payments. It is part of the plan of project 2025 for corporations to gain farmland. Simply don’t pay farmers what they are owed and buy up the land when the bank forecloses.

The program was cut off so suddenly there are babies dying for lack of food. People in the USAID hospital were taken home in wheelbarrows to die without treatment. It shouldn’t have to happen to you to matter to you. First they starved the poorest children, What will we say?

Trump does not have the power to withhold funds just because he doesn’t like the program. Nixon tried to impound funds that Congress had allocated to programs he didn’t like. Congress passed a law specifically denying the president that right. Now it’s in the courts and he is losing.

Now we have a president who openly questions courts that don’t agree with him. Will he defy the court? What will we do to support the Court and the Rule of law?

People are starting to wake up. Fifty demonstrations in 50 states last week. Millions of people all across the country came out. It didn’t really make it into the news but people posted it to YouTube.

Consider the bizarre press conference Musk and Trump held in the oval office on Feb. 11. I encourage you to watch all 30 minutes.

Musk was asked directly for an example of fraud. He stammered and lied about Social Security payments to people who are 150 years old. When asked directly about his billions in military contracts Elon said no there was no conflict of interest because he himself doesn’t look at the contract. How stupid does he think we are?

We have a very complicated society and our government does a lot of things to keep it running smoothly. Everything from Air traffic control to food safety inspections. We depend on Agencies to keep us safe and carry out the work we have given them. Wiping out USAID without a hearing is an action that should alarm everyone.

We can see Project 2025, the dismantling of our government, being implemented before our eyes.

The Trump administration is moving fast and breaking things like USAID. An entire agency wiped off the map. Without any regard for the work that agency was doing or what will happen to the people working there. Every single program USAID ran was created by congress. The legitimate way to cut their funding is to have Congress debate it and vote. That was the check the founding fathers put on the power of the executive. It’s up to Congress to stand up for themselves and for us.

The continued functioning of our society depends on a population that understands the complexity of our system and the need to stand up for themselves when we are threatened.

Call U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy at his Jamestown office at 716-488-8111. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer’s Buffalo office is 716-846-4111 and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s Buffalo office is 716-854-9725.

Tell them Musk was not elected by anybody. He has no business with our personal data.

Marie Tomlinson is a Fredonia resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com