The Town and Country newspaper will no longer publish Letters to the Editor or opinions from elected officials that do not agree with the editorial board's view on, well, just about anything.  And, that policy could change at any time, for any reason, without notice, solely at the editor's discretion.

            Wow!  Nothing like thumbing your nose at the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.  But that is exactly what Big Tech is doing today, with the silent consent of many government officials.

            Last week's attack (yes, attack) on the Capitol of the United States was appalling.  Like some of the protests we faced last spring and summer, it started out as a non-violent gathering of protesters sending their message of unity to specific actions or events.  Sadly, at those events many people worked hard to do just that, but some decided to turn to trespassing, looting, rioting, destroying property, injuries and death to make their point.

            The peaceful many are getting grouped in with the lawless few.  In 2016 then President Barrack Obama said, "To assign the actions of one person to an entire movement is dangerous and irresponsible."  How true.

            Finger-pointing is running rampant on Capitol Hill and in the halls of government in every state where violence took place.  While officials look at who, they fail to recognize what.

            While officials are busy investigating and arresting "who" they are neglecting "what" the primary tool used to facilitate the acts of violence – social media and the Big Tech companies that are providing the means to facilitate the actions while picking and choosing who to ban.

            People have become slaves to social media.

            Their acts of facilitating and censorship are keeping money flowing into their pockets from both sides while coming through the back door to squash the First Amendment with their uneven practice of censorship.  It is further enraging people who view their actions as stifling free speech.

            For months, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon have moved to limit the reach of their "customers" by censoring items that perhaps shouldn't be censored.  Who makes the decision?  Their corporate "internet editors" who seem to have a tendency to censor towards their own political leanings.

            This forced many users, especially conservatives, to jump those ships and move to a social media app called "Parler."  To counter that move, Apple and Google removed the Parler app from their app stores.  Amazon Web Services recently shut down Parler by simply denying them access to its servers.

            It was also a good way to reduce competition to the benefit of Twitter.  You see Twitter had recently signed a multi-year contract for Amazon Web Services to use their servers and host the Twitter account.

            Parler was contracted with Amazon for the use of their servers to provide the app to their customers.  Most of the Parler users were formerly found on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.  Parler is suing, but their app is not available to anyone right now.   

            That's a lot of Big Tech power over the people. But, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook don't mind; it's less competition for them.

            We shouldn't need Big Tech and the people who use and abuse it to dictate how we live our lives. We cannot ignore our faults; we need to acknowledge them and work to correct them.  

           We all have to live and coexist together.