Patricia Sterling's criticism of the Grant County Federated Republican Women groups' quest to help school children think and decide about the Differences Between Capitalism and Socialism is just plain Puzzling. (Silver City Daily Press, March 23, 2021). She calls this learning and development of thought as "the same old tired clichés praising capitalism while excoriating socialism."

Capitalism is synonymous with free markets, aka, FREEDOM. Freedom is the quality of being free-the absence of necessity, coercion or constraint in choice or action, and it's the liberation from slavery or restraint from the power of another. (Merriam Webster)

Socialism, on the other hand, is a system of society...in which there is no private property; a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state. (Webster) Being controlled by the state is not freedom.

Informed Americans, including their children, want freedom. They want their own property. They want their own dreams. They want the opportunity To choose. SO WHAT'S WRONG WITH 3rd through 12th GRADERS LEARNING ABOUT THE DIFFERENCES?

And by the way, Social Security and Medicare are programs run by the federal government using retirement and health care premiums paid by employers and employees to help fund retirements and provide health insurance after 65. These programs are hugely different from a socialist from of government; control by the state.

No one wants to be taxed excessively, Including Ms. Sterling, I'm sure. But taxes have provided American citizens with parks, roads, postal service etc., and in a limited way, provide help for those who CANNOT help themselves. This is still NOT SOCIALISM.

Promoting the idea that school children should research and decide for themselves the benefit of one system over another is not a propaganda theme as Ms. Sterling suggests. It is EDUCATION, critical thinking and maturity of thought.

Submitted by:
Richard E. Miller
Chair - Republican Party of Grant County