I pick up a newspaper and read where the administration in Washington is banning Fox News from briefings or threatening people in the Democratic Party if they appear on a Fox program. Another article deals with two U. S. soldiers missing in Afghanistan and 25 soldiers who were wounded while looking for them. Only one in three children who want the swine flu vaccine can get one, while in Europe it is by invitation only. A letter writer is worried that our dentists are buying Halloween candy from kids and giving them a toothbrush and then sending the candy to troops in Afghanistan to befriend the children there.

Wake up America! While we concern ourselves with cavities in children in faraway lands, mythical beasts like Bigfoot and banning outdoor burning while promoting car racing events, our freedoms are being stripped away.

Our current leadership in Washington is increasingly controlling the media; paying and promoting the “friendly” agencies; passing health care legislation that bans companies from considering pre-existing conditions, which will cause premiums to go up exponentially; controlling the banking and auto industry (cheers to Ford for not taking the stimulus money); and throwing out the Constitution by cozying up to treaties with the European Union. This is not socialism, it is the dawn of Marxism.

Allen Chase

Cattaraugus