I am writing to respond to the Nov. 5 letter by Lloyd Doughty, who recently came back from a European tour of some former Soviet bloc countries. He learned of their sad histories under the Soviet system of communism.

One of the things that travel can offer is a keener sense of history of the places we visit. But what I found peculiar was his equating the kind of oppressive totalitarian communist regimes of those places with some U.S politicians’ interest in bringing some socialistic reforms to our country, primarily in health care, education and in some corporate regulations.

If he hasn’t already, I would encourage Mr. Doughty to travel to Italy, Ireland, France, Spain or Belgium (to name a few), where he would find many of the “socialistic” programs being proposed in this election already in place and thriving. These countries are all part of the capitalist system with plenty of innovation in all fields. They come from free or low tuition in their universities, universal free (and excellent) health care coverage for all (based on taxes, not premiums) and stronger social security systems than ours.

While it is important to learn more about all European cultures and history, let us also keep in mind the successful examples of “socialistic” programs. We all need to be knowledgeable about the world so that we can better evaluate political slogans and misleading charges that may be no more than fear-mongering to gain electoral advantage.

Susan Stoddard

Brunswick

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