#us issues

Please get involved with your local government, all this stuff is so terrible, it really is. Here is a letter I've drafted and sent to local government people. If you are better at letter writing please feel free to leave a comment on how I can improve it.

I, as a citizen of the United States, find the use of ai especially ai readers being placed with the intent to monitor private citizens at all times for the very flimsy excuse of 'protection and safety" incredibly concerning and disgusting. Our country was founded on freedoms, including from persecution. Innocent until proven guilty, while of course rarely actually done correctly, is still a supposedly held belief and law. By monitoring and collecting data on all citizens with no consent and no reasonable cause, the government is overreaching and assigning all citizens as criminals under trial. I believe the Fourth Amendment is not being upheld. This is incredibly concerning and upsetting. 

The Fourth Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights. While our current federal government is stomping all over the constitution and rights of the public that does not mean our local governments should as well. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches unless justified by probably cause. By removing the privacy of citizens with the constant monitoring and analyzing of all citizens going about daily life in public and private and cataloguing that data with ai cameras and databases the government is telling us that existing in public is enough of a reasonable cause to be harassed and investigated. The Fourth Amendment was to protect citizens from general warrants that allowed searches of anyone, anywhere, whenever and yet that is what flock cameras and other such monitoring cameras and ai databases are doing. There is no longer any reasonable cause needed as it has been shown numerous times that the police and even private individuals are allowed to access and search up anyone they want with zero reason and even harass individuals for personal relationships. We as citizens of the United States of America should not be entered into law enforcement databases or indeed any government databases or assumed guilty of crimes not yet thought of or committed just by existing in public. GPS trackers are not allowed to be placed without an individuals consent or a warrant as is ruled by the U.S. Supreme court, so why are camera and databases that boil down to advanced GPS trackers allowed to do just that with no oversight or consent?

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warns that automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) are becoming tools for routine mass location tracking and surveillance, with too few rules governing their use. These systems can collect and store data on millions of innocent drivers, creating detailed records of people's movements without their knowledge or consent.

There is no longer any excuse to allow these cameras and systems to continue. We have seen in news reports and lawsuits across the nation the damage that these surveillance systems have caused. Leaving them up just leaves the city open for the same liability that others have faced. We need to get these removed as soon as possible before more get hurt by these illegal and unconstitutional cameras.

Hear me out for just a couple minutes.

I had a good dad once. He was a present dad. He woke me up at night because he made brownies too close to bed time but promised I could have one. I have videos of my dad playing in the sprinkler with me. I have photos of my dad helping my sister climb up a mountain. I had a good dad once.

My dad was in the military and served his country for 20 years. Twenty. My dad was deployed to Iraq right after 9/11. Twice. My dad once surprised me by coming to visit from Iraq over my birthday. I have pictures of me SOBBING because he surprised me right after I blew out the candles. My mom was the mom who adopted platoons and sent care packages with hundreds of dollars worth of food and goodies from home. I wrote letters to them and cried to God Bless the U.S.A. My dad carried the names of people I could never meet on bracelets.

But my dad came back from that a broken man. I no longer had a present dad or a dad who played in the sprinkler. I had a dad who couldn't watch fireworks on the forth of July. I had a dad who's back had to be against a wall. One who cringed saying thank you when we brought him his favorite food on his birthday.

My dad left my mom after 20 years together. He couldn't handle being a dad or husband anymore. My dad cheated on my mom and he refused to pay a single bill from that day forward. We lost the beautiful house my parents bought together, and my mom and us 4 children had to move into an apartment building where someone got shot. It was all she could afford. I cried once because I invited a friend over and I was humiliated because our lights wouldn't turn on - again. I went from having my own computer in my room to going to friends' houses to do homework because the internet got turned off.

My mom was halfway through her degree when my dad left. We moved back to Texas to be near my grandma so my mom could have help getting us to and from school, but her university was in Kentucky. We drove the 8 hours both ways every weekend so she could attend her classes and finish her degree. My mom did her best to find a job in our small town, but it was 2009 and she couldn't find a job. Everyone was laying people off. She took a $9/hr job selling ads for the Pennysaver just to afford rent. It was the only place that would hire her. We only made it because student loans helped her pay our bills.

After she graduated and we didn't have the student loans to help anymore, we moved into my grandma's two extra rooms. She shared a bedroom with my 2 younger brothers (aged 13 and 9) on a 2 person bunkbed while she was kind enough to let me sleep in the room by myself so the boys weren't invading my privacy. As it turns out, being fresh out of college doesn't pay well either.

So me and my brothers were the kids who didn't have lunch money. I'm the kid that got two jobs as soon as I was old enough so my younger brothers didn't know we didn't have food in the house. I gave my brothers $50 a week each to get lunch. I paid for my brother's field trips. I bought them clothes. I never even told my mom about it. She was doing her best.

My dad was absent for all of this, by the way. My once present dad left my brothers crying on the curb of the gas station where they were supposed to meet for visitation. Multiple times. My dad only paid child support because they started taking it directly out of his retirement after he refused to pay it willingly. The $800 was, in fact, not enough to cover food, clothing, and every other need for 4 children.

Only after all of this did my mother finally cave and apply to get on SNAP. Nothing changed for us. We barely qualified for assistance, but it was the difference many nights between eating and not for my brothers after I moved out.

So, what say you to me and my family? Did we not pull ourselves up by our bootstraps enough? Did we not do everything we possibly could to make it? Did we not work the jobs that were offered? Did I not give up enough of my childhood for it? Did my mom not work hard enough? Did she not do everything she could to better our lives? Did we not use every one of our able bodies to do what we could? Did we not pay enough taxes? Were we useless, lazy liberals? Were we in a state that just gives handouts to any old person who asks for it? Did we not fucking BLEED red, white, and blue? Were we traitors to our country? Did we not lose our entire world so my dad could fight for you? Should my mom have kept her legs closed if she didn't want to suffer? Should she have picked a better man? What say you? Did my family not deserve to eat?

Think about that for a second, because my mom's story is not unique or even uncommon. That's how quick it can happen. That's how undeserved the hunger can be. That's how you go from living comfortably to living in poverty. That's how close you are to needing help every single day. You're one cheating spouse away. You're one disability, one illness, one injury, one death, one divorce, one lay off, maybe even just one bad month away from being my family.

We were not the exception to the rule. We are the average SNAP beneficiaries. My mom is so many of the moms on SNAP. My siblings and I are so many of the kids eating because of SNAP.

Ghosts 1X3 (See 4X4, also written by Ben Willbond)

Written by: Ben Willbond

If you have phone anxiety like I do, please text ‘RESIST’ to 50409 (ResistBot)!

Send your letter to “Congress.” Ask your reps to “Save Net Neutrality!”

SO

this is in no way me condoning people going around committing random thefts from stores, BUT!!

if youve been experiencing trouble finding employment and/or getting on ssi, snap or disability benefits in the us, or whatever low-income benefits canada and mexico may have, then know this

walmart associates are only allowed to check unbagged items to see if theyre on your receipts. this is clearly stated in our training videos.