To the editor:

What have we become? A nation that once prided itself on being a “champion of the little guy,” we have just recently witnessed millions being spent on electing a president, billions given to greedy companies who don’t control their people or their spending, and once again, members of Congress giving themselves a $4,700 pay raise!

An automatic pay raise, according to an article in the Dec. 31 Journal-World, that they designed will happen every year without even having to vote on it, by calling it a “cost of living” adjustment. As the article said, “members of Congress don’t often snub an opportunity to make more money.” Where is their concern for their constituents?

When choosing our representatives, we need to take the same advice we give our kids when they are choosing friends or a spouse: “It is more important what people do than what they say.” Words and promises are easily manipulated when you get a position of power. Washington is a quagmire of narcissistic people who forget, when they get in the entitlement environment they enjoy, just who put them there — and why! We, the people need to take up the mantra of President Harry Truman, “The buck stops here”!

Don and Shirley Adams,
Lawrence