Letter to the Editor

The first time I remember feeling a loss of a good thing by “things that come to an end”. I was a kid of seven or so. I had just finished enjoying my very first Tootsie Roll Pop. (A customer of mine on my Chicago Tribune paper route gave it to me as a tip for good service.)
It was cherry flavored. My mouth started watering just now just thinking about that taste experience I had long ago. I guess back then I had been sheltered from candy by my parents. With a bunch of brothers and sisters, candy was not on our weekly menu.
From my first lick, I knew this was going to be good. My taste buds rejoiced thanking me for the departure of the mundane food it was used to getting. I found out why it was called a “Tootsie Roll Pop when I got to the center. And then, it was over. All that was left was a moist paper stick, with all the flavor sucked out of it. And so, I learned that all good things must end.
And now that I am a lot older, I wonder if our United States, as we knew it, will come to an end, like that cherry Tootsie Roll Pop. To me, it feels the same. Government officials are making decisions that will give more power to themselves to punish the same people that put them into power. They are breaking the law by not producing a budget and then living with it. The United States is now $28.5 trillion in debt and all we hear about is global warming and white supremacy!
How about the fact that some of the debt-money is owed to the Seniors of the United States? Some 30% of the national debt is owed to the Social Security. But no one mentions that because it’s gone, as far as the government is concerned, spent on God knows what.
The president should at least mention as he tries to talk about what is going on in our federal government. He will not, of course.
This must end this November 2022, or we all will be left holding a wet, tasteless stick. And our Government and Constitution, as we knew it, will be just like the Tootsie Roll Pop, just a good memory.

Troy Reed
Hamilton, Ala.