Educate the public about corruption

Through reading the article “Cut the Special Privileges for Officials” in the Sept. 30 edition, I saw multiple examples of the corruptness in our government. Our elected officials are abusing their power by having the government pay for things such as their health care or housing. Even when these officials are caught in the act, the government is not punishing them. Public censure is rarely used, which means the people do not know about the corruptness. By not publicly punishing and humiliating these officials, the people are “kept in the dark” and are unaware of what their leaders are doing.

As described in the article, public officials, just like average citizens, should have to work out their financial problems on their own. They should not have an upper hand just because they have a place of power in the government. It is disappointing to hear about all of the corrupt officials that lead our country these days. After the troubles with Rod Blagojevich and now reading about these other leaders, I am questioning the strength of our officials. Our country needs to be much more cautious when choosing leaders from now on or else they will continue to abuse the power we entrust in them.

If more people were aware of the problems in our government and government officials, then it would be easier to eliminate them from their positions. The citizens of the United States need to be more educated in order to weed out the bad officials and replace them with trustworthy leaders. Once the bad leaders are all exposed, this can finally happen. Articles like this are an easy way to educate the people about our current corrupt leaders. Thank you for educating me, and many other citizens, about the corrupt actions of our government officials.

Laura Hojnacki

Libertyville