To the Editor:
Bernie Sanders is generating the kind of excitement that wins national elections and brings about social change. He’s advocating not some unreachable European system, but actually the America I grew up in. When I was a child, everyone had a telephone, no matter how remote their address. Power and water were public utilities, and hospitals and prisons weren’t profit-making institutions. Ads for pharmaceuticals were banned on TV and no one was afraid of having their savings wiped out by going to the ER. College was affordable and a source of upward mobility. The infrastructure was up-to-date and maintained, and banking and investment companies were separate. It wasn’t called “socialism” then; it was simply the way things were, and made for a prosperous, dominant, middle class. Perhaps because I lived those values, they don’t seem out of reach to me.
The way Sanders has so successfully run his campaign and the thrilling support he has generated in these few short months demonstrate his abilities as a leader. It’s not about him, it’s about us, which is why you always hear him say, “WE are the candidate…” Together we can bring about change and return to the human values on which this country was founded.
Carol Diehl
Housatonic
