From: Bill Lucy 

In article ,
rgparker{at}west.net says...
> In , note these cogitations
> from blucy{at}mediaone.net Bill Lucy:
> > Yes, I've spent almost 30 years thinking about it. On a day to day basis, I
> > don't think a person would notice whether they were in Cuba or Puerto Rico,
> > unless they were told where they were.
>
> So if you wanted to go get some newspapers and magazines you wouldn't
> notice? You wouldn't notice in a bookstore? You wouldn't notice in a
> department store?

Nope. You're reacting as someone who sees these things everyday, Randall.
If you never saw them, you'd never miss them. That's a "freedom from
want" issue, anyway.


> You are missing a far deeper point: A society's health depends on the
> civic mindedness of a fairly small minority of its members.

Agreed. But many of those get arrested and get put in jail in Puerto Rico,
too. Some of them are still in jail, due to recent events (I chose Puerto
Rico for a reason).


> > There are books on sale at Amazon that local governments won't allow
children
> > to read.
>
> Ah, and these local governments have prevented Amazon from selling them?
> You are grasping here. Its hard to compare the degree of censorship in
> this country to that in Cuba. We aren't even within a few orders of
> magnitude to being in the same game.

Perhaps I am grasping. But it's still true. We can do a number of
comparisons, and you or I would reach. In the end, I really don't think I'd
be free in Cuba. But that's the view of someone who has been politically
active as an American citizen since I can remember. As said before, I don't
have the tools to determine whether I'm really free, because I'm encumbered
by what I "know" is freedom.

>
> > Unlike some, I don't place that much value on personal property.
>
> It is not a small matter. If you depend on the state for your job you
> are muzzled far more than you would be in other circumstances. Freedom
> to trade and own property are necessary for survival. Otherwise you are
> a slave.

Please understand this one thing. If you think that I care one whit if I
lose my job with the State of Illinois, you don't know me. I have had more
than one person attempt to "muzzle" me (within the last months,
there was the Assistant Director of the Department of Aging who tried), and
I have carried on.

C'mon, Randall, you know me better than that. 

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