Wanda Roam
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
There is so much false reporting everywhere: in mainstream media, social media and in our government agencies. The Oct. 22 LTE is another example. It claims U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer misled the News Tribune and its readers by saying "he proposed legislation to help women with breast cancer every year." This is not what Luetkemeyer stated at all. He said every "Congress" he has introduced legislation to advocate for women's accessibility for mammograms. Congress is new every two years, so new legislation is proposed and must work its way through with every new Congress. Luetkemeyer, however, recognizes every October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The fact-check sources social media and other media uses are very suspect because there is usually an agenda behind their findings. Regardless of what the "fact-checkers" may say, the Biden administration under the proposed spending bill has made clear he wants to give the IRS authority to track all bank transactions over $600. The "Not Real News" was clever to declare the policy proposal would not affect accounts with "under" $600 and was therefore not true. No, the policy was for all transactions "over" $600. Read carefully.
The memo from Attorney General Merrick Garland states, among other things, the "Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation's core values. ... The Department takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources to discourage these threats, identify them when they occur and prosecute them when appropriate."
The memo also directs the FBI with each U.S. state's attorney to convene meetings with federal, state, local, and tribal and territorial leaders in each judicial circuit within 30 days of the memo to discuss strategies for addressing these threats.
After seeing how the FBI has abused its authority for the past five years and the fact there are political prisoners being held since Jan. 6 without bond and without charges filed, who wouldn't take this memo as a chilling threat to parents to stay away from school board meetings or face the wrath, power and unlimited financial resources of the federal government?
What a concerned parent may see as an impassioned appeal to her child's school board, a government lackey may consider an insurrection or threats. With all the push-back this has received, we may be spared the Gestapo tactics. Pray.