If you voted for President Donald Trump: Are you having second thoughts about some of his policies and/or Elon Musk’s DOGE? Did you vote for cutting off large chunks of staff and programs serving our veterans, disabled Americans, the poor, cancer and Alzheimer’s research, school lunch programs, IRS personnel seeking tax-cheaters and simply responding to calls for help, air traffic controllers, 83% of the USAID life-sustaining food and health work around the globe or 50% of our Dept. of Education?

Did you vote for increasing prices on groceries and energy due to tariffs on our closest neighbors, increasing the national debt by trillions to continue huge tax breaks for the super, massive cuts in Medicaid and possibly Social Security, firing people of color, women and trans people under the pretext that DEI is discriminatory, restricting teaching the full U.S. history of including our flaws (so we can all learn from them) or abandoning NATO?

Everyone agrees that illegal entrants guilty of serious and violent crimes should be incarcerated and/or deported. Are all immigrants criminals, rapists or threats to our safety, our jobs and our homes? My family and yours most likely descended from immigrants who faced similar disrespect and discrimination when they first arrived. Everyone agrees waste and fraud should be stopped. But are mass firings and program terminations without evaluations fair? Is demonizing all federal employees deserving? Will firing staff and closing programs designed to protect us taxpayers and consumers really reduce fraud?

Charlie Zoeller

Derry