To the editor:

Early AM radios were developed in the 1920s and by the Great Depression were found in nearly every U.S. home. On Halloween of 1929, Orson Wells broadcasted “The War of The Worlds,” which was a depiction of an earlier H.G. Wells story of a Martian invasion of Earth. Although the drama was not intended to scare anybody and was only put out for entertainment, the opposite truly happened.

There was nationwide panic as people thought that indeed Martians were conquering the Earth. Early black and white televisions came on the scene in the 1950s and by the early 1960s, almost all homes had one. People huddled around this new talking picture gadget and it became the focal point of many families’ day. They could watch current events and news, sports, Western movies, love stories, family comedies, and the like. It still plays an important role in most people’s lives and has had many technological improvements over time.

Fast forward to the present. Now computers of different types have emerged as well as phone devices in different styles. This latest technology has in one aspect been a blessing. Huge storage capabilities of data and information, speed of dissemination, the mating of different platforms, printing ability, etc. Currently, grocery stores, hospitals, doctor’s offices, service stations, most any business or manufacturing plant you want to mention would have great difficulty functioning without this modern technology. Even your personal life would be disrupted if things crashed.

Now even our government has had foreign hacking done upon it. Recently, the Colonial Pipeline was a victim of ransomware, they had to pay a Russian actor 10’s of millions of USD to allow them to let their oil flow again. After that, meat producer JBS had to pay ransom to another Russian bad actor to allow them to resume production.

Why is there so much divisiveness in our land in areas like politics, religion, guns, and many other social issues? The degree of this has gained momentum in the last 10 to 15 years. Bad foreign players, mainly Putin’s Russia, and perhaps China; are highly determined to overtake the U.S. They know it can’t be done with military invasion or another type of extended armed conflict. So the plot is to weaken or destroy us from within.

They have already planted the seeds by putting out disinformation and crazy ideas on various social networking platforms. There has been a general dumbing down in the U.S., that combined with a curious and gullible populous, spells the opportunity to exploit U.S. weaknesses by these foreign bad actors.

They do not have your best interest in mind and would love to see us crumble under our own weight. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Social networking is ripe for abuse and one can’t be too careful of whom you are listening to or even if there is any credence to it at all. Don’t just jump on the bandwagon because it sounds good to you; many times you are just spreading lies that only help foreign dictators.