Mar 28, 2015 2 min read

I recently read Jim Greenwood’s Feb. 1 letter, “The public interest is under assault.” I was impressed enough to clip it so I could occasionally re-read it. Few letters hit the nail as squarely on the head.

Socialism educates your children; catches and prosecutes criminals; puts out fires; makes it safe to eat, drink, breathe, take medicine and fly; and funds our military. Just as Greenwood states, it works for the greater good, for the public interest, as opposed to “me.”

In the March 8 Observer-Reporter, John Quayle responded to Greenwood’s letter with a beautifully worded but substance-deficient “missive.” Quayle backs up his claims about the dangers of socialism with a quote from Ayn “I’ve got mine, too bad for you” Rand, and completely misses the point of Greenwood’s statement that even poor countries like North Korea and Cuba provide higher education and health care for their citizens, while the richest country in the world refuses to do so. Quayle turns it into an empty argument about whether these countries are communist or socialist. He closes by taking eight lines to repeat the Republican mantra: “America – love it, or leave it!”

Greenwood, I believe, asserts that Republicans use the word “socialism” into standing against, as he put it, “establishing the public interest as the guiding principle of making federal law.” Quayle’s response to Greenwood’s letter confirms that assertion.

Don DeAngelis

Canonsburg