Land of the free?

When the people of North Carolina recently decided to change their constitution to make it impossible for two people of the same gender to marry, it made me reflect on my recent trip to Holland. The Dutch, who live in “socialist Europe” as the Republicans tend to call it, can marry whomever they please, smoke whatever they want, go to Cuba anytime they please and, yes, decide how and when they will die. Yet, we North Americans, who like to think we live in the “home of the brave and the land of the free,” can do none of these things, at least not in most parts of this country.

I readly acknowledge that many Americans are truly brave, but do question whether most of us actually live in “the land of the free.”

Strat Douthat

Plainfield