While Musk threatens senior, veteran services, NC’s elected officials sit on their hands | Opinion

Not a single state elected Elon Musk. Yet, he’s dismantling federal agencies that distribute Social Security checks, keep workers safe on the job, inspect our food, ensure students with special needs get needed resources and more.

Under the guise of “government efficiency,” this unaccountable billionaire is violating our private data, undermining our freedoms and threatening the services that veterans, senior citizens and workers depend on. The elected officials we sent to Washington D.C. are sitting on their hands.

Enough is enough. North Carolina’s senators and representatives need to stand up for us and stop this billionaire takeover. This madness needs to stop now.

Ashley Hawkins, Charlotte

Charlotte Catholic

I support the position of parents over lack of transparency of the Charlotte Catholic school system. I agree with Father John Allen, who said a new school board needs to be created to include parents, teachers and clergy.

I strongly believe this represents a breakdown between schools and community in private as well as public educational institutions. Parent-teacher associations exist in most elementary and middle schools but are not as common in high schools.

For the sake of our older children, it is imperative that all administrators, teachers, parents and community leaders be part of the leadership of schools. I would take this further to include some of the high school students on these school boards. Their voices are important, too.

Julia Crim, Morganton

Tillis’ choice

Sen. Tillis, your choice to lead our nation’s defense department is unqualified to do so. I suspect that you knew that when you voted to confirm Pete Hegseth. Following his performance in Germany, the whole world knows it for certain.

Did you see him being heckled by military families at the base there? A rare sight, indeed. I wonder what lessons, if any, you’ve learned from all this. I wonder if you will ever stand-up with your vote as our senator, even if doing so makes you stand out from the rest.

Or will you continue to simply dance the MAGA minuet?

Geoffrey Planer, Gastonia

Griffin’s election case

I’m a lifelong Republican who voted for Donald Trump and Judge Jefferson Griffin. But now, due to an extreme legal challenge, my ballot is at risk of being thrown out, along with more than 60,000 others, over bureaucratic errors by a state agency.

Judge Griffin is asking the Supreme Court to invalidate these ballots, despite admitting voters followed the rules. His case hinges on missing registration data, but he has yet to provide any evidence of fraud.

Historically, Republicans have opposed changing the rules after an election. In the 2000 presidential election, Democrats in Florida tried to throw out 20,000 Republican ballots over administrative errors. Conservatives argued that election officials’ mistakes shouldn’t disenfranchise voters. President Trump-nominated Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, then a young attorney, helped defend those Republican voters.

No matter how you vote, all of us must stand together to stop this attack on our elections.

James Danz, Pinehurst

Trump and Putin

President Donald Trump siding with Russia’s Vladimir Putin will be seen as a 21st century catastrophe for the United States. Trump is now Putin’s shill. All Putin wants to do is bring back the former Soviet Union. Ukraine is an important step in that direction.

Our Republican senators must see what Gen. Patton saw about the USSR. They were not and are not on the side of the U.S. Each senator must speak out about Trump siding with Putin and against Ukraine.

Katherine Nelson, Rock Hill

Jeff Jackson

Andrew Dunn’s Feb. 18 column is misleading concerning Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s suits against the federal government. If Jackson had not filed these suits concerning funding of research projects, blocking U.S. Treasury data access, freezing federal grants and ending birthright citizenship, who would protect the citizens of North Carolina?

It is right and good to prosecute criminals, a small number of our population, and aid law enforcement, but it is necessary to protect the rights and well-being of the citizens of North Carolina.

John Thompson Jr., Charlotte