“By the time I was born, in '83, România, my country, has been a Communist country for three decades and Ceaușescu has been leader for 16 years. There was no legal private enterprise and no private property. All the factories and farms belonged to the state, and even a man' s chicken and milk cow were "state property". The peasants that haven't been arrested for doing too well had to either work in the communal farm or give milk, eggs and produce to the state. Intellectuals, factory and business owners, well off farmers, they were all arrested as enemies of the People and either killed or sent to work camps. The country 's brightest and most hard working were culled out.
After visiting North Korea and seeing the leader worshiping there, Ceaușescu insisted on having the same thing for himself and his wife, back home. If you browse YouTube you will find the sickening way he got fawned upon. And God help you if you didn't play along.
There was no such thing as free speech or freedom of association. They cut down the central park in my town so people couldn't sit on a bench and talk. More than 3 people talking together could be arrested for colluding, if one was known by authorities for making a bad joke 5 years ago.
And then food and energy got rationed.
You see, we were a great producer of grain before communism, and a fair producer even after. But Ceaușescu got it into his head that we needed industry, so he got several loans to buy old technology nobody knew how to use anyway, and got us into debt. And... He wanted to pay it in record time, so he can prove the Decadent West how well communism worked.
So he starved us.
My parents would wake up at 4 in the morning, go sit in queues reaching hundreds of meters. Rain or cold, everybody would file out, waiting to buy their ration. You would get half a bread per day. That was the main food, to this day we eat bread with anything. A kilogram of oil and sugar per month. A kilogram of meat and one of processed meat per month. Don't be fooled, "meat" doesn't mean prime cuts. Bags of chicken ribcages necks and claws were known as "tacâm". Pig's feet were known as "patriots", since it was the only part not exported.
You would also have the right of buying 166 kilograms of vegetable per year.
Whatever not on this list was illegally sold, and could bring jail or forced labour, both ending most often in death.
Coffee, sweets and other "luxuries" were contraband. Most couldn't afford them. Owning western music or listening to pirate radios that transmitted it could see you arrested too. Being arrested for Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds or some Michael Jackson... What a sham....
In 1989 I was 7. People have had enough and the powder keg blew over the arrest of a catholic priest in the west of the country. And then it just spread. The army decided to rebel, and it joined the masses. The dictator tried to flee, but he was caught, tried and shot on Christmas Day 1989.
I remember that day. Or the day after.
We left grandma's house to go back to our apartment. Armed people stopped us to check for guns, but everybody was grinning. On our way they saw a queue. Oranges, a very rare find. One of my parents stayed behind, the other took us home. Dad had a tree hidden away, and he chopped it, put it into place and we decorated it, and I got the first orange I remember, a pair of red stockings and Freedom that Christmas. A precious gift.
My country has discovered capitalism, if not the values of the Right. We are flourishing, though the tendency of giving the State all the power is still there. We are still a left leaning society, though we work to improve.
Once given away, Freedom is hard to get back. And it always costs blood. And all those who tell you about the value of equality of outcome, about socialized health care, about "paying your fair share", well, they might mean well. But Evil, true Evil, comes in small steps and with the best of intentions.
I didn't like Trump. Personally, I still wouldn't have him over for dinner. But he is a great choice for you, as a president. Keeping the US great, keeping your freedom, remaining a beacon of freedom and hope for the world, these are true ideals. Good ones.
Thank you for fighting the good fight.
Freedom isn't free.”
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