Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Editor, Times-Union:
America the beautiful no longer seems to be the land of the free or the home of the brave. Under the dictatorial rule of our current leaders, our country has not become first; it has become last — and alone. The blueprint (Project 2025) of the billionaire puppet masters (Heritage Foundation) is literally being followed religiously by the authors themselves and our bought-and-paid-for leaders. The purging and replacement of government agencies, employees, and protocols is coming along as planned. Control of the masses is becoming a reality with the surrender of law firms, universities, media giants, political leaders and even the Supreme Court, to the dictates and whims of a blossoming oligarchy.
America’s leaders are ignoring the brutal, bloody takeover of foreign people and lands by lawless, power-hungry dictators. They are looking the other way as helpless men, women and children are kidnapped, starved and slaughtered in Gaza and Ukraine. Our president has reneged on his vows to end wars in 24 hours. He is instead enabling the perpetrators of these onslaughts and drooling over the prospects of what he could possibly gain from the fall of these war-torn lands.
Freedom of speech seems to be a privilege enjoyed only by our leaders as they determine what is allowed to be spoken and by whom. Books and free thinking are banned but guns are easily obtained and carried openly. True history can no longer be taught in many states, but debunked conspiracies about recent elections is mandatory curriculum (Oklahoma). Our Constitution promotes religious freedom, but our leaders insist that only Christianity be promoted in public schools. Our Bill of Rights was written to limit the power of government and to protect the rights and liberties of the people, but our current leaders have usurped the power of all branches of government and instead are limiting the rights of the people.
Rather than protecting the rights of all people to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we now have religious leaders like an Indiana minister calling for the execution of LGBTQ people. We have unidentified, masked strangers kidnapping hard-working, law-abiding men, women and children (some even U.S. citizens) based only on the color of their skin, denying them due process, and sending them to “concentration camps” or to dangerous foreign countries just to meet a quota set by our president.
Our president declared that our country is “hot”; it is not. America has lost the respect and trust of our allies but has gained their pity. I fear we have also lost the possibility of their aid in times of great peril. We are no longer seen as the epitome of goodness, hope, and generosity. Instead we have become the evil perpetrators of death and destruction as we ignore and deny the needs of the poor, the sick, the bullied, and the weak all over the world - and especially here at home.
Sadly, we have become the bully. Isn’t that just great!
Jeanne Tuka Schutz
Winona Lake, via email
