Well, I had no plans to write any Letter to the Editor tonight, but, after reading so much confusion in Allan Peterson’s letter on Wednesday, I simply must bring the facts to light about our Democratic Socialism, as he isn’t the only one with so much misunderstanding. I have even heard network commentators spreading falsehoods from their own ignorance of the facts. Many people are confusing Communist Socialism, which has a dictator and zero ownership of one’s property, etc., with our own kind of Democratic Socialism, which we have all lived, loved and enjoyed, in our own U.S.A., since FDR’s New Deal, or since we were born! Remember learning about that New Deal in grade school? It was all sort of dry and meaningless then, but now we have grown up.

Yes, for all we know, some of us are probably currently living on one of our Democratic Socialist programs right now. For sure, most of us went to some or all Democratic Socialist public schools, and frequently enjoyed the services of our Democratic Socialist public libraries, or driven on some of our Democratic Socialist interstate highways.

Of course, in all my life, nobody has ever called any of our programs like that socialism. We all just take them for granted. But now, we have the word “socialism” back in our vocabulary, and we decided to hate it and be scared of it because we usually think of the Communist kind, instead of our own, democratic kind.

All the programs that are available for our needs, and come out of our tax money that we all pay, are our Democratic Socialism. No, none of it is “free”, and nobody ever said any of it is “free.” We all have to pay taxes, sooner or later, so we are all paying for these services ourselves. That’s why we can all use most of the services, and we do whenever we like. And no, it is NOTHING like Communist Socialism!

I have mentioned a couple of our Socialist programs above, like our public schools and libraries, but here are a few more of them that we all use or benefit from, and we all pay for: our military defense system; our police and fire departments; our postal service; the CIA and the FBI; student loans and grants; farm and corporate business subsidies; the V.A. health care system; Medicare; the G.I. Bill; our court system; our jail system; our wars; food stamps; Medicaid; free lunch program; the IRS; public parks and zoos; disability insurance; corporate bailouts/welfare; and on and on and on — you get the picture. If it comes out of our taxes and benefits the people, it is our Democratic Socialism. FDR had the best ideas ever, and we continue to add to our benefits, as our representatives deem necessary.

If you have a computer, look up a very good, thorough and informative article at: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/3/29/1078852/-75-Ways-Socialism-Has-Improved-America.