This is in response to Mark LaFlamme’s column Feb. 3, “Here’s looking at you.” In it, he talks about surveillance cameras being installed here and there.

They are tolerated because the average citizen no longer cares. People have become apathetic to any infringement of their rights.

Parents are being arrested for child abuse for meting out swats on the behind while children run rampant, knowing that a 10-minute timeout isn’t a deterrent.

Politicians are selling the economy to the highest bidder (China) and allowing the work force to be replaced by cheap labor abroad. They fail to impose any tariffs on imports because big business won’t allow it.

Our educators are handcuffed to asinine objectives such as “No Child Left Behind.”

Under the burden of such issues, people allow government further in, instead of taking power away.

Politics is dominated by greed.

The people haven’t been properly represented as a constituency for decades. Our interests are not the same as those of our elected officials.

This is all due to our complacency and lack of any sense beyond self, and until our microwave dinners, 7,000 channels of mind rot and prescription-based euphoria are taken away, nothing will change.

We’ve forgotten what it means to be American and free and proud. We’ve lost any sense of community because our generation has become litigious, jealous, fearful and lazy.

We have been pandered to and spoon-fed political correctness for so long that we’ve lost our ability to care.

Tristan Coffin, Auburn