Letters to the Editor for Monday, September 21, 2009

Socialism has never, will never work
I was incensed when I read a letter to the editor from L. Donald Morrison on the Aug. 31 opinion page. I have waited more than two weeks to cool down, and I am still incensed.

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What he fails to see or will not see is that the American people are the most generous and caring people on Earth. We give a larger portion of our incomes to charity than any country on Earth. Whenever there is a flood or tornado, we pitch in. I resent him calling us hedonistic and uncaring. It is a false generalization.

He talks about socialistic countries as ideals we should emulate. Most socialistic countries are now moving toward free enterprise and away from socialism because it doesn’t work. China is a good example. Their standard of living is improving as they move away from collectives and toward free enterprise.

To be fair to Mr. Morrison, the early Christian church did experiment with a socialistic society. Everyone brought what he had to the apostles, and it was distributed to each as any had need. But if he had read a little further in the New Testament, he would have found that socialism did not work back then either.

Because the early church had all things in common, they attracted the lazy and shiftless, and everyone suffered want because only a few produced anything.

Even the Saints could not make socialism work.

To correct this situation, in II Thessalonians 3:10-12, the Apostle Paul says, “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you disorderly, working not at all but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort, by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.”

It would be hard to get a better example of why socialism doesn’t work.
VANCE WILKINS
Amherst

A good neighbor
I live on College Hill near Robert S. Payne Elementary School. I’m writing to publicly praise and thanks to Gil Cobbs who just finished renovating two houses directly across from Robert S. Payne Elementary School on Floyd Street.

For years, these houses brought embarrassment to the immediate neighbors as well as the Robert S. Payne Elementary School family. Everyone was happy when Gil Cobbs brought the properties last year and immediately posted a permit to work on them.

The owner has distinguished himself as a developer of new houses in the Forest area. Lynchburg is lucky that he has become interested in restoring existing houses. I encourage you to see these beautifully restored properties. Opportunities abound throughout the city for other class renovations like these.
TEE BEASLEY
Lynchburg