No Uncle J, socialism will not kill you
My uncles think Big Brother is coming for their guns OH MY GOD. According to them, and I used to think they were reasonable, rational individuals, life as they know it has just come to an end.
Dear Uncle J,
No one is going to take your hunting rifles. It's in the constitution. It's safe.
Social policy changes ARE NOT socialism.
Health care, better education, better social programs that are funded by taxes ARE NOT socialist redistribution of the wealth. They're public services. It's a way to help your fellow Americans. (Which is the Christian/Muslim/Jewish/Hindu/Secular Humanist thing to do!)
We're not going to become China, Cuba or North Korea.
If anything, stronger social policy makes us more like Sweden, Norway, Finland, Canada (*hugs the canada*) Australia, France and the UK. The Scandinavian countries are some of the safest, cleanest, most economically successful (Sweden has one of the strongest, most stable pension plans in the world) countries out there.
Why shouldn't we be like that? Why shouldn't your children go to better schools and universities, drive on better roads and actually be able to afford health care?
Go here read and learn
The key to sustainable foreign relations isn't having better guns. Dictators and terrorists come out of poverty and desperate situations. If you and I live equitable lives, I have very little reason to hate you.
Yes, I'll admit I was depressed when George Bush won. I was worried my tuition would go up. (It did) Gay rights would be damaged and life I as know it would loose something.
Let me enjoy the same legal protection as everyone else when I get married and I'll let you bring a gun to the wedding.
I love you very much, even though I don't understand you.
Opal
Dear Uncle J,
No one is going to take your hunting rifles. It's in the constitution. It's safe.
Social policy changes ARE NOT socialism.
Health care, better education, better social programs that are funded by taxes ARE NOT socialist redistribution of the wealth. They're public services. It's a way to help your fellow Americans. (Which is the Christian/Muslim/Jewish/Hindu/Secular Humanist thing to do!)
We're not going to become China, Cuba or North Korea.
If anything, stronger social policy makes us more like Sweden, Norway, Finland, Canada (*hugs the canada*) Australia, France and the UK. The Scandinavian countries are some of the safest, cleanest, most economically successful (Sweden has one of the strongest, most stable pension plans in the world) countries out there.
Why shouldn't we be like that? Why shouldn't your children go to better schools and universities, drive on better roads and actually be able to afford health care?
Go here read and learn
The key to sustainable foreign relations isn't having better guns. Dictators and terrorists come out of poverty and desperate situations. If you and I live equitable lives, I have very little reason to hate you.
Yes, I'll admit I was depressed when George Bush won. I was worried my tuition would go up. (It did) Gay rights would be damaged and life I as know it would loose something.
Let me enjoy the same legal protection as everyone else when I get married and I'll let you bring a gun to the wedding.
I love you very much, even though I don't understand you.
Opal
no subject
I actually saw something online about how countries like mine aren't free, because we have universal healthcare, etc, etc. Um, we're free to not go bankrupt when we get sick. We're free to be able to have support from the government if we're out of work/disabled through no fault of our own.
Tiia and I were robbed on a train from DC to NYC a couple of years ago, and when we eventually arrived in Montreal and spoke to a detective, once we'd got the business out of the way and she'd found out what I do for a living, she wanted to tell me about all the homeless in that city who are Vietnam vets or are disabled physically or mentally, who have no financial support from anyone and have nowhere to go.
You don't see masses of homeless on our streets. You don't have people losing their homes and businesses if they get sick. If that's "Not being free", I'm fine with that.