Europe is land of the free

Wow! I’ll bet the British would be amazed to learn that they are slaves to their government (Pamela Stone, Feb. 16).

I have been stationed in France, Germany, Belgium, England, Japan, Thailand, Korea and the Philippines. In many cases, base housing was not available, and I lived in villages with the people. I can assure you that none of them considered themselves slaves.

We seem to forget that World War II raged across many of these countries. The people hate guns and don’t even want to see one. When they rebuilt their homes and governments, they made sure that their gross national product would no longer be spent on waging war against their neighbors, but on making life better for themselves. We call it socialism. They call it “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

I began processing my retirement while stationed in London, where even the police were unarmed. An elderly neighbor asked what my plans were. When I said I would be going home to the United States, she replied, “What? Why would anyone want to return to that ugly, violent country? You are free now. Stay here with us.”

You see, they consider us arrogant, materialistic barbarians enslaved by our own greed, violence and paranoia.

Eugene Artz

Medical Lake