Dear Joseph and Adena,
Papa grew up in a time that was very different than now (when ever you read this). I saw our country, USA, grow and flourish and become great. If they are still teaching history (and doing so truthfully), you will learn that this country started as an experiment in freedom and capitalism. The founding fathers, at the risk of their lives, wrote a constitution and broke free of the King of England. And it worked for us. We developed the best of everything, and our people lived good lives. We became the envy of every nation in the world. Those who hated us were either jealous or under governments that I describe below.

We are a democracy, or at least a republic, that elects officials who we can kick out of office if we do not like what they do. There have always been those, however, who do not agree with this way of governing. There are those who feel that everyone should have the same things, no matter how little they might contribute to the country. This means that if you lived in such a country and worked hard to earn a living, the government would take some of what you made and give it to someone who might be lazy and had not earned anything. It is called taxes, a way of redistributing wealth.

These same people feel that the elite (they decide who is elite) knows what is best for us all. They believe that they should run things. In doing so, they collect almost all the earnings and wastefully spend it on programs for the people. We call the people who think this way socialists and communists. Two things you will want to know about them: 1, They feel they know what is best for us and will use any means to get their way, and 2, they will not be subjected to the same programs as the common people. Even now, as I write this, congress does not have the same medical program as the rest of us.

As I write this, a man who refuses to show us his birth certificate (we are not sure where he was born and if he is even allowed to run for the office), has a radical background, has never run anything or produced anything, who as a senator usually voted "present" to avoid taking a stand and who now has surrounded himself with Czars (a communist dictator) who were all had radical and/or suspicious legal backgrounds. More over, as it turns out, he has lied about everything he promised, especially to have open government (as his minions have done everything behind closed doors. They even refused to let the minority part participate. Unheard of). They have already passed budgets that will bankrupt the country. Now, this week, they have passed a bill which none of them could have read (it is thousands of pages long) and are set up to take over the health care system, one of the best that ever existed.

I suspect that when you read this health care will already be rationed. I suspect that you will have lost many of the freedoms we enjoy today, but you will not know it because you have grown up with it. What I want to say is that I am sorry, so very sorry because, you see, this way of governing has never, ever succeeded. It has lead to poverty of the masses, misery, loss of all freedoms and dictatorships.

I write this with great sadness. Today, I have looked into the abyss.

Please remember,

Papa loves you both.