Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day, and on July 4 I celebrate America's. This year is special, because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence.

On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba, and a few months later, I was in the United States to stay.  That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress.

I've thought a lot about the anniversary this year. The election-year rhetoric has made he think a lot about Cuba and what transpired there. In the late 1950's, most Cubans thought Cuba needed a change, and they were right. So when a young leader came along, every Cuban was at least receptive.

When the young leader spoke eloquently and passionately and denounced the old system, the press fell in love with him.   They never questioned who his friends were or what he really believed in. When he said he would help the farmers and the poor and bring free medical care and education to all, everyone followed.

When he said he would bring justice and equality to all, everyone said, "Praise the Lord."

And when the young leader said, "I will be for change and I'll bring you change", everyone yelled, "Viva Fidel."

But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the executioner's guns went silent, the people's guns had been taken away. By the time everyone was equal, they were equally poor, hungry, and oppressed. By the time everyone received their free education, it was worth nothing. By the time the press noticed, it was too late, because they were now working for him.  By the time the change was finally implemented, Cuba had been knocked down a couple of notches to Third-World status. By the time the change was over, more than a million people had taken to boats, rafts, and inner tubes.  You can call those who made it ashore anywhere else in the world the most fortunate Cubans. And now I'm back to the beginning of my story.

Luckily, we would never fall in America for a young leader who promised change without asking, what change?  How will you carry it out? What will it cost America ?

This is what's happening in the Good ol' USA.

Back when the Immigration and Naturalization Department was under the Justice Department, in order to become a US citizen one had to learn the English Language (how to speak, read and write).  Now we have to press a number in order to hear a menu in English.  When was this little requirement deleted?  Of course now, the INS is a division of Homeland Security.  I don't know about you, but I feel less secure in knowing we have American Citizens that cannot read, write, or speak English.  What went wrong?  I'll tell you what went wrong.  Complacency, Tolerance.  As you should know, a complacent and tolerant country WILL NOT SURVIVE.  Wake Up you idiots!!!

...Clint Williamson, Abilene, Tx.

I just recently came across a site by accident called xxxchurch.com that made me sick.  I have always and WILL always believe that a Christian will show in everyday life his or her conviction to their beliefs.  This site wants to glorify things the Bibles teachings have condemned.  Whatever happened to practicing what we preach.  Being a good neighbor, and doing what’s right  in the eyes of God has somehow evolved into doing what we want and using God as justification for our actions.  We seem to want to point fingers at the rest of the world because they don’t believe the way we do but, after coming across this site, I’m beginning to see how other countries can look down on some of our beliefs.  The old saying to remove the twig from our own eye before trying to remove one from another’s  is, by all means, relevant in this case.  We have groups in this country trying to claim “GOD” for everything from Porn to Drugs and there needs to be a limit to how far we will allow this to go.  The story of Sodom and Gomorra tells us that God is against the “Gay” lifestyle.  Yet we have come to the point that we are allowing them to not only go to our churches but to get married in them.  If we are ever going to regain the respect this country once had in the rest of the world, we desperately need to clean up our own back yard.  Wake up and smell the coffee. You can only get respect when you can give respect and you can only do that if you respect yourself.

 ...Roger Jackson