Thanks, jo.

Since I know you have a "conservative" steak to your political thinking, I appreciate your comment all the more.

Regardless of what one thinks about communusm as an organizing principle, the Sandburg is something that everyone should read at least once a year, if only to remind ourselves how we are all bought and sold, and how we put up with it to get the "standard of living" we so prize in this country.

The fact that the Soviet Union subsidized Cuba does not change what Castro did with some of the money - he did bring health-care to a large segment of his population that didn't even know what it was.

We can't even do that, for all our vaunted socioeconomic supremacy.