This past Saturday I read with interest Brian Moore’s letter extolling socialism and how it is a good thing. Well, if I remember my history, I frankly don’t see it.

Socialism has after all produced some of history’s biggest tyrants. People like Lenin and Stalin and Hitler. Yes, Mr. Moore, Hitler was a socialist, a national socialist, but a socialist just the same. Today we have the Castros and Hugo Chavez, and look what nice people they are.

I wonder if the people of the United States really want to go down that road. If you are someone who wants the government to take care of you from cradle to grave and not take any responsibility for your actions, then you are a socialist.

In a socialist country, the government controls everything - newspapers, television stations, etc. They control the prices of everyday products, which in turn creates shortages. You also don’t have the economic opportunities as you do under our system.

There is also another thing that occurs in socialist countries and that is that you don’t have that much personal freedom as you do under a republic. Just look at countries like Cuba, where for the past 50 years people have been fleeing to come to the United States. If Cuba is such a wonderful country like some people would make it out to be, then why are they leaving?

Socialism is the bane of everything our Founding Fathers stood for, and it is a sad state of affairs there so many people who fall for the nonsense that people like Moore spew on a daily basis.

Peter Stathis, Spring Hill