IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
# 319 “Two Letters”
January 2, 2026
Well, one day into the year, and a few observations are in order. Wars still pepper the planet with greed over need and control over consideration holding sway mightily. Fraud and theft draw attention to those who use their positions and connections to funnel monies to those who want but do not work.
The incestuous behavior links both to private exploits and the twisted thinking of those in political circles who maneuver funds meant for the needy and/or infirm to benefit cronies or groups coddled to gain votes – not to mention to line their own pockets.
The greed over need argument is valid. Remove greed from any equation and the cream rises to the top. Consider the billions (yes, with a “b”) under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. Those who progenitors invented paper, porcelain, gun powder live in a society devoid of freedom. Christianity struggles in a blatantly brutal atmosphere where there is no value to human life and winning at any cost is the bottom line. Control is the be all, end all.
Imagine what might happen if freedom reigned – not solely in China, but around the world. One wonders what inventions might rise to the surface to benefit all mankind. Yet, freedom in many countries is not only elusive, but also impossible. It is hard to fathom what could happen if all the money spent on war materiel worldwide were put to the betterment the of all peoples.
I remember very well standing before a class of my college students and explaining the stark differences among different forms of government. Ah, yes, the differences. Capitalism raised more people from poverty than any other form of government that ever existed. Yet, despite its history, it fails to fulfill the wretched dreams of those who govern simply for control. I asked the young people, to a person, to name one place that socialism had ever worked. The answer was short and sweet. I explained that there was no such place. The empty promises are clearly illustrated in the last 30+years of what was one of the most prosperous nations on earth. Venezuela. Once a powerhouse of South America, it fell victim to the wild promises of the socialist spiel. Broken and destitute with Maduro and the drug cartels in control, there is nothing but poverty and anguish for a people who overwhelmingly voted for change but lost. The woman who won the election was denied her victory. Maduro kept control, but recently the Nobel Prize went to her.
On October 10, 2025,Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado won the year’s Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela. Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado rang in her Nobel Peace Prize victory Friday by dedicating the award to the people of Venezuela fighting for freedom — and President Donald Trump.
Her quote is instructive and meaty. It should be warning to anyone tempted by socialists who purport to have all the answers.
“We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy,” she wrote on X. “I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause.”
One of my classmates had a direct link to Venezuela in the 1950s and 1960s. Her father lived in Venezuela where he worked for an American oil company . The country’s economy was booming and its people were prosperous and solidly solvent. He had a tremendous career. But, does opportunity still exist in Venezuela? Nothing could be further from the truth.
Consider Margaret Thatcher’s quote: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” We can see that in spades as we look around the world. Yet, despite a dismal track record, the specter and lure of something gained without effort still beckons.
I love it when so-called “progressives” tout the benefits of a socialist state. Their utopian view stems from ignorance of the facts. In fact, as stated for many years, “There is no free lunch.”
In 1975 Milton Friedman published the collection “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch: Essays on Public Policy” which printed the maxim on its back cover: 29 Professor Friedman’s famous aphorism, There’s no such thing as a free lunch, is a summary of his economic views, and is quoted endlessly by a plethora of personalities.
In fact, Friedman is correct. There is a trade-off for getting “something for nothing.” And that trade-off? Someone else gets something. You get nothing.
Today, we see the result of poor civics and history education showcased in the recent New York City Mayoral election. Who would have believed that 25 years after the horrific attacks of 9/11, New York would swear in a Muslim mayor on the Quran, not the Bible. Memories are too short. To me, those films of the planes hitting the World Trade Center should have been on television on a regular basis since 2001.
And, speaking Bible, it warns of the end times when right will be called wrong and wrong will be called right. Well, folks, you see it every day. How could we have fallen so far so fast? It all highlights the incessant permeation of our education with ideas far from those of our Founding Fathers.
There should be nothing more precious to Americans than freedom. Yet, that very freedom roots to a bitter fight for religious freedom. Founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and beliefs, this nation has stood for nearly 250 year as a beacon for the rest of the world. This is not to discount that any nation is without fault. Fault comes from people, not God. With 300+ million of Americans, there is certainly enough fault to go around!
Yet, when a nation turns its back on God, it bodes ill for the whole. From the lies of Madalyn Murray O’Hair and her founding of American Atheism and the banning of school prayer to the trans-gender idiocy we see now, a quote attributed to (but not proved to have been correct) showman P. T. Barnum may be more apt than not.
“There’s a sucker born every minute ” is a quotation often associated with P. T. Barnum, the famous American showman of the mid-19th century. Although there is no evidence that he actually said it, the credit continues to this day. Early instances of its use are found among salesmen, gamblers and confidence tricksters. Still, we see the empty promises of socialism and its close follower communism as the temptresses of the century.
There is dignity in work. There is pride in accomplishment, no matter how small. Take away dignity and the void is painful – not to mention dangerous. I had more civics education in elementary school than seen in colleges and universities today. The goals of communism are not unlike those of a beaver. Take one bite at a time, and the tree falls. Well, what we are seeing now is not mere bites, but chomps.
Consider the recent protests against Israel on campus after campus across the United States. Funded and supported by those who hate America, these demonstrations can be shortened to the first five letters. Demon. Ah, yes, Satan is alive and well — and busy! He thrives on hatred and incivility. He lives and breathes lies. You don’t need to look very far to see his work either. He licks his chops at the prospect that America will fail.
Once freedom dies, a society is lost – a tattered remnant of what once was. My hope is that the awakening of our young people in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, will light the spark to bring to life the bedrock beliefs of our Founding Fathers.
The first word of the Declaration of Independence says it all. “We…” Going to the text, we read: We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed…
Perhaps we need to also add one integral portion, assumed, but not stated.
The governed should be informed and reared to appreciate what they have been given. Every soldier who ever died in defense of freedom paid for that which we enjoy today.
Unless – and until – we educate our youngsters to embrace the actual history of this country, we doom them to accept the rhetoric so cavalierly put forth by those who could take this country down.
Who benefits from socialism and communism? Only the elitists and militarists. Everyone else suffers. Americans take freedom for granted. It is not given. It is earned. Beware of the carrot. There is a big stick behind it.
Push for solid teaching of American history. Push for books, not screens. Push for what built this nation – personal effort and the grit to push for better ideas and products. Forewarned is forearmed. But are we? Do we see the perils that lie beneath the “fairness” laced into empty promises?
Push for a concept that has fallen on bad times. Getting back to the Declaration of Independence, the first words of the second paragraph has another meaning – one once sacrosanct, but flailing badly.
Push for WE. Not just the noun, but for a critical component of any strong society – W E : WORK ETHIC. We need it now more than ever before.
Think about it.