The reality of freedom, freedom won and freedom lost, has become for me an issue of passion.

I watched an amazing video documentary the other day about the hopes, dreams, and reality of youth and young adults in Cuba. It was an eye opening presentation of a generation that longs for the very freedoms we are allowing to slip away.  As I watched, I could not help but compare their passion for freedom in a rigid political system, to our alarming trend towards allowing, or even worse encouraging a more socialist posture.

In Cuba, “jobs” are government jobs, the pay is not enough to live on, and the rations the government supplies each month, last for only 2 weeks.  Young married couples must often live with relatives due to a shortage of housing, and for them, simple privacy is a rare luxury.  Promising students study hard to earn advanced degrees, and even with the skills and knowledge they have worked so hard to acquire, they have no hope that it will secure them a brighter future.  Only loyalty to the revolution offers one a chance at material success.

But young Cubans are no longer buying into the excuses the aging regime makes for their circumstances.  They have hopes and dreams of a better life, and they believe that Cuba has the resources to build a better future, if only they had the freedom to use them.  Sadly, those who speak out are subjected to censorship, beatings, and all manner of restrictions that will make an example of them, and deter others from being so bold.

If only our young people understood the value of the freedom we have enjoyed in this country.

If only they understood that there are decisions the government should not have the power to make for us. I find it terrifying that our government continues to become more and more like the regime we have opposed with economic sanctions since the Castro regime came to power.

Our middle class is disappearing as unemployment devastates once financially stable families.  Public assistance has become a quagmire of red tape for those who never needed it in the past.  Healthcare is already being rationed to those who cannot afford comprehensive health insurance.  More and more families have to rely on food stamps or charities distributing food, and the number of homeless grows larger each day.

The answer to all of these problems is certainly not more government intervention.  We need only look 90 miles south of Florida to see that governmental control and distribution of resources does not benefit all citizens equally.  In this country the current administration will always place the blame squarely on the previous administration, just as in Cuba, whatever is not working is blamed on the embargo.

So what has happened in the US that transformed us from a culture where hard work resulted in economic security, to a culture where nearly 17% of the population relies on the government to feed, cloth, and in some cases house them, while countless others desperately need, but do not qualify for assistance?  We can place the blame on many programs and policies, but what I see at the root of them all is corruption in our political system, and a huge shift in values, and if you really think about it, the corruption is indeed the result of that shift in values.

In the name of tolerance and freedom of a small minority, we have allowed references to God to be legislated out of public view.

By removing His Holy Presence in our schools, public events and government buildings, we have given that ground to the enemy and the enemy has rejoiced and flourished.  Politicians routinely abuse the power entrusted to them and bow down to the desires of lobbyists whose influence will keep them in office.   Public service has become the most self-serving occupation in the land.  The public, largely unaware of just how deep the corruption runs, demands change, lending their support and giving their vote to the most eloquent speaker making promises they have no power to keep.  Once elected, regardless of their job performance, they will reap the benefits of a tax supported gravy train for the rest of their lives.

The picture that emerges is one of a two tiered welfare state.  On one side, politicians, even those who lose voter confidence after only one term, receive huge sums of public assistance for life, with no need to go through the humiliating process of re-qualifying every few months, and on the other, common people whose jobs have been lost, struggle through a mass of red tape to qualify for meager benefits that keep them trapped well below the poverty line.

In the middle ground are workers whose real incomes continue to shrink as the economy devastates their buying power.  Earning too much to qualify for the great American giveaway, and too little to get ahead of their debt, their tax dollars supporting both tiers of the welfare state, they have become resentful with good reason.  Hard work can no longer be counted upon to result in economic security.

The stark reality of the situation can easily be understood when we examine the plight of a single mother of three,  attempting to give her children a better life by learning a profession and working hard.  She is forced by the system to quit her job at the first realization of success because she no longer qualifies for her children’s healthcare benefits, yet does not earn enough to pay a healthcare provider for those services.  The bottom line is her family is better off if she does not work.

We need look only as far as Cuba to see where our current path will take us.  This beautiful tropical paradise filled with a resilient and hopeful people, became a culture where a handful have much and the masses have little to nothing, where infrastructure has crumbled, opportunity is non-existent, and young people dream of living somewhere, anywhere else.  Their revolution was a forcible takeover, ours is a willing, and ignorant, relinquishment of our freedom.  The results have alarming similarities.  There is much we can learn from the grandchildren of the Cuban revolution.

I urge you to view this documentary and others like it.  I urge you to educate yourself about how people in other countries really live and what they must do to survive.  Many wise men and women have said that history repeats itself, and so I urge you to consider the true value of freedom lost, and prayerfully consider the actions of our current leadership and the candidates who compete to become our future leaders.

It is not too late to reclaim this land and transform it so that God will again bless America.  We need to begin by electing leaders that serve God and are trustworthy stewards of what He and the public have entrusted them with.  We are precariously balanced upon a dangerous precipice, and this country is in great need of change.  We must be wary of the change that seeks to control us, and fight for the change that will empower us with opportunity to achieve our dreams.

Blessings & Adventure,

Lynn “lynnibug” Rios

from RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Ode Sung in the Town Hall

For He that worketh high and wise, Nor pauses in his plan, Will take the sun out of the skies Ere freedom out of man.