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To the editor:

Do not believe a single word I say, but please look up the facts for yourself.  While people have been using lies and conspiracy theories to divide and conquer America, the divide between truth and facts and what a significant percentage of our population believes is growing.

The truth will set you free, so please seek the truth.

In my personal conversations with some of my neighbors, I have become accustomed to hearing, “Yes but,” followed by a false allegation that negates the “Yes” part of what could have been a conversation.  I ask of you, my neighbor, to take some time to slow down on blindly accepting the deluge of what you hear on Fox News and the internet and begin to do your own fact checking.

I am stunned by the lack of understanding from people who think that high gas prices are because of Democrats.  High gas prices are happening because there is a global system of energy supply that the Department of Defense identified decades ago as being a threat to national security.  That is a threat to our nation’s security, not a threat to the GOP or Democrat’s security.  Our American government is not a team sport and freedom demands each of us become educated about how government is supposed to work, and to become active to make sure it represents we the people.

Beginning with the election of President Obama, the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell stopped serving the people who elected him, and made it his publically-stated mission to block anything our freely and fairly elected President tried to do.  The Affordable Care Act was created by bipartisan efforts and based upon the GOP Governor, Mitt Romney’s healthcare plan in Massachusetts. Look it up. Taking advantage of the American racism rising in response to having a bi-racial, Christian from Hawaii in the Oval Office, the lies about our past President began growing on the Internet to help divide and conquer our nation.

In order to attack the much needed and helpful Affordable Care Act, it was renamed “Obama Care” and the people who fell for the lies, went into lock step opposing our own interests. New lies started after it was successfully legislated and it was up to our individual states whether or not to implement it. At the time we had a Republican governor and still have a Republican legislature who used lies to justify opposing the Affordable Care Act for North Carolina. Thankfully, we the people, elected a new governor who adopted this opportunity for affordable healthcare since too many hard-working North Carolinians do not have an employer providing healthcare coverage or are unable to afford healthcare any other way.  The tactic to block a Democratic President was damaging to most of us in North Carolina and other states with Republican governors.  We need a living wage, a home to live in, food to eat, and affordable healthcare to have any quality of life in America.

Think about it, if things get better, folks are less upset  and not as easily manipulated by propaganda designed to get us to vote against our own best interests. McConnell is now also opposing everything that the current President is trying to do to make things better for you and me. In May 2022, the House of Representatives passed a bill along party lines that seeks to lower gas prices by cracking down on price gouging by energy companies. The House vote was 217-207: no Republican, including Ted Budd, supported the bill, suggesting it’s likely headed for failure in the Senate. The false allegations about why Republicans opposed this bill are how they continue to falsely blame Democrats for every problem in American while never taking responsibility.  We must demand that our elected officials stop the blaming and lying and start working together for we the people.

The Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act would grant the President authority to issue emergency energy proclamations and make it illegal to increase gas and energy prices in excessive and exploitative ways. It would also expand the Federal Trade Commission’s power to investigate and address possible price gouging by oil and gas companies. All major gas companies are reporting record profits, and US petroleum companies are still enjoying the 20% corporate tax given by the previous administration, which supposedly was going to “trickle down” to raise wages for employees, but of course, it has not and will not because we learned when Reagan was President, “Trickle down economics” is never going to work.

In honor of our nation’s 2022 Independence celebration, join me in working together to make things better for all of us. Please do your own research so you cannot be manipulated to work against your own best interests. Thank you.

Bonnie Clark,     Harmony