Letter to the Editor
This is to the next two generations. The people 50 years old and their children. You have never enjoyed real freedom. For all your life, you have been told there are two Americas. One rich and the other poor. That is not true. You can be whatever you want to be. Here are a few people who done it: a Soviet refugee in charge of Google, a boy from Turkey in charge of Coca-Cola, A Syrian refugee in charge of Apple, and a Cuban immigrant in charge of Amazon.
I have been to part of these countries and believe me, there is no place in the U.S. as bad as they are.
It all starts in the schools. I have grandchildren that are out of high school that can’t write their name. They have to print it. You go to the store and the young person can’t make change. If I was the person in charge of the school, I would be so mad at my people that didn’t do a better job at teaching this child. It is the parent’s job to see that his or her child is learning something instead of playing ball.
I have a degree from a school of higher learning. Believe me, I learnt more in 6 months of on the job training, than I did at school. The schools have to change. Get back to teaching the basics like we were taught in the old one-room school. God back to the old books that don’t tell lies or is just made the way the writer wants it to sound. Teach how the internet works, but don’t teach from it. There are too many lies on it.
Let me get back to freedom. After WWII, Truman removed most of the restrictions. For the first time in 15 years, the United States was free again. Time to get back to work. All kinds of jobs were available. Nobody was telling you to do anything. The local school board hired the teacher. We had some real good teachers and some not so good. Just like today. They didn’t have a union. We had a radio. It was used to get the news and weather. That was all. It used a battery. We had no electric power. But we were free. We milked the old cows and sold the milk. We would trade milk to the neighbor for pork. We hunted wild game for most of our meat. There was no game warden then.
On the Fourth of July we got to go to town and get a block of ice and a case of pop. That is all we got until the next year. I know it don’t sound like much, but we always had plenty to eat and got a new pair of shoes for school. Nobody told us what to do. That is called freedom. Not what we have today.
Freedom is different to each person. Living in a three-room apartment on the 3rd floor of a building in a city is not freedom to me. But freedom comes at a price. Everybody has to work and there is always something you can do. I know a farmer who runs his farm from a wheelchair. You have to make your own way. You can’t depend on anybody else. And for the ones that want to do nothing but be on the internet all day and night and let the government pay for your food and doctor and run your lives, you don’t need any freedom.
You know, I hate to admit it, but the older generation told us 30 years ago that if we didn’t do something, this would happen. I am glad they didn’t see it happen on their watch. We were too busy making a living, enjoying the life our mothers and fathers had fought and died for.
An older man who is dead now, told me in about 1994, we have lost the first round, they got some new rules. It is the start of their drive in Congress to control us. You don’t know it, but this will be the next cold war. This will be because they want to control our lives and we want to be free. They will keep making rules and regulations until it will bury you. Right now, 1994, they are training teachers to teach your children a different story about our past. They don’t want them to know the way it happened.
He was a smart man. A well-informed man. I thought he was crazy. Now I know he was right.
What do we do now? Do we lay down and take it or do we fight for our freedom and that of our children and grandchildren? Do we want them to live like the people in China does? Being told when to get up in the morning. Being watched all day long. Who they can marry or how many kids they can have. If they can go to church. Stand up and let them know, we are here.
Tom Vinson
