Aug 21, 2017 2 min read

This is in response to Jim Greenwood’s letter in the Aug. 13 edition of the Observer-Reporter. He states that we are fortunate to have Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in public life at this crucial time in history.

I would like to remind Greenwood that Sanders stated during the campaign that the United States would be better if we modeled our government after Venezuela’s. Look what is happening there. Socialist governments are the worst. Individual freedoms are stripped away and the government is lord and master. If they don’t like what you say, they throw you in prison, or worse. Take a look at Cuba or North Korea, for example. The people in North Korea are starving, can’t afford electricity and have no rights.

How does Greenwood think the Soviet Union crumbled? Capitalism is the reason that America is great. Greenwood also uses the term “fascist America” regarding our drug laws, instead of the conditions that make people want or need drugs. We are not a fascist nation. The definition of fascism is “a political philosophy, movement or regime that exalts nation and often race above individuals, and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition.”

That sounds closer to socialism than capitalism.

Christine Zienkiewicz

Canonsburg