I voted for Barack Obama. I would like to believe that things are going to change for the better, but I have some serious concerns.

First, why has Larry Summers - who supported the banking deregulation in the Clinton administration that led to the current financial catastrophe, and who applauded Boris Yeltsin's violent military overthrow of the brand new, freely elected, Russian parliament - been appointed to such a powerful position in the Obama administration?

The University of Chicago School of Economics, with which Mr. Summers was associated, played a despicable role in advising brutal regimes the world over that suppressed civil liberties and terrorized citizens into accepting the harsh economic measures prescribed by this school (Naomi Klein, "Shock Doctrine," Henry Holt 2007).

Now I learn (from the February issue of The Progressive) that an American military unit, the Army's 3rd Division, first combat brigade, is being deployed for security operations on US soil in violation of two US laws.

The juxtaposition of a powerful man who believes that the economy takes priority over civil liberties with the deployment of a military security force on American soil has me very worried, especially after eight years of unrelenting attacks on our constitutional freedoms.

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I would like an explanation for this and have written to the president and my Congress people asking for one.

JOHN KASTNER, ROCHESTER