Today my husband and I attended a meeting held in the senior citizen building where we live here in Las Vegas. The reason we were there was to hear a representative from the Housing Authority explain some changes that they plan to institute by July of this year. The experience was quite an eye opener.

We had earlier been informed that a decision had been made by HUD that will undoubtedly affect many of the residents. It has been determined that any of the buildings that are under their egis are to go non-smoking, as well as "grass free," even if the residents live in Las Vegas where pot has been legalized.

So much for the right of privacy! It would appear that the privileges we once took for granted as a product of the Bill of Rights no longer have any value. If someone in Washington determines that an eighty year old woman who has smoked for most of her life will be prohibited from doing so in her own apartment, the die is cast. If she is reported by her neighbors for smoking cigarettes, she will be evicted from her home and may not be able to find another place to live.

What if a resident's doctor or therapist recommend that they continue to smoke cigarettes or marijuana, in light of severe depression or PTSD? That has no value when a government agency shows no interest in people who are sick or old, and are forced to use wheel chairs to navigate this place.

Government has become the home of heartlessness. What ever happened to presidents who were really concerned about the welfare of the old, sick and underprivileged?

I sat and listened remembering a better time when one could turn to government for help. Where have men like Roosevelt gone? Why do we continue to believe the lies of people running for office who are so in love with power that they select to dismantle all that this country once appeared to stand for?

There has to be someone out there who really represents the Bill of Rights that was to provide the right of privacy, free of government interference. Why did I listen feeling as though we were back in Nazi Germany, where the people were only pawns in a game of deceit, to be moved in the direction that best suited the misconceptions of its leaders?

Perhaps I am overreacting to what I heard today. However, I refuse to believe that the best interests of the public motivated this decision. When I saw a man in a wheel chair leave the room, not having heard a word about the use of marijuana, which is his life line in coping with the illness that has left him paralyzed, my heart broke at the lack of heart that has become the way of the world in which I live.

Leaving the meeting I feared a future where government has become the enemy of the people.