A Toast to the Holidays; D. G. Smith

For everyone, however, it has a significancethat is inescapable. The Christmas-Hanukkah-New Year season represents a summing up, a reflection, and maybe an equal sprinkling of introspective applause and regrets. As a writer on political and economic issues and one tied unabashedly to the capitalistic system, I cannot help but reflect upon what it must be like to do one's summing up in a socialistic economy. Like most Americans, I am accustomed to analyz ing my accomplishments, trying to understand and correct my failures, and getting things set up for a new time frame in my personal and professional life. How discomfiting it must be to find oneself robbed of all this; how depressing to have it all placed in the hands of a planning committee, a group of strangers reading charts and printout sheets to determine if everyone was marching in cadence and how many showed up for roll call. Mr. Smith is a writer living in Santa Maria, California.

He has been a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal. Socialismhas alwaysseemed to be a nonproduc tive and wasteful employment of human talent, but at holiday time there is another reality, which is the cheerless existence it offers to those unfortu nate enough to be caught up in it. While ostensibly offering all things to all people, it really is nothing ~ more than mediocrity spread across the board and a dollop of cold gruel for all hands. The holiday season would be quite meaningless without hope, and there is no hope for anyone unless there is freedom. A stagnant, half-alive, over-planned bureaucracy can authorize a yule log, a menorah, a Christmas tree, and even aNew Year's toast, but the meaning is lost on people who can only be part of a mass and are not a~lowed to be individuals. Hope is a pitiful thing indeed when it is only a synonym for escape. There are socialists who claim that their system allows freedom, but it is only an authorized and "correct" form of independent existence-the right to graze with the herd but not to run off and explore the forest. It is notable too that the peo ple who live in a socialistic system, whatever man ner of worker's paradise has been selected for them, are willing to take the risks that are neces sary to get out. It might mean climbing a wall, stealing a train, digging a tunnel, or crossing an ocean in an overcrowded and leaking boat, but the human spirit is drawn to freedom like a moth to a lamp.

445 In North Vietnam, 900,000people moved south until Ho Chi Minh closed the border, and in China we saw a similar scene in the gre.at Hong Kong embarrassment. During the Clement Attlee years in Great Britain, the brain drain was nearly catas trophic. The brightest and the best simply packed up and left, and they were still going when Win ston Churchill returned to 10 Downing Street and gave them a reason to stay. Although quite unplanned, the people of the world have voted in the greatest election ever seen, and the free society has won in a landslide. People everywhere want the rewards from their own efforts and are willing to suffer the losses from their mistakes. It is as simple as that. No committee can strike hope from the human soul, and no government can keep people from seeking freedom. It is the message of the holiday season and the reason that we can reflect on the past and plan for the future as free men and women with someplace to go and a reason for going there.

And so, a holiday toast: To freedom and the right to manage our own destinies. As long as peo ple will risk their lives to get it, we have cause to revel in it. Happy holidays to everyone! D 446 "When My Country Is Free" by Robert A. Peterson N ot long ago, I had the opportunity of host ing Marcos, a representative of "Free Angola," at my school. His message on the Angolan people's IS-year struggle to bring the Marxist, Cuban-backed government of Angola to the negotiating table was so wellreceived that ours was probably the only high school parking lot in the country with student cars sporting "Free Angola" bumper stickers. After his speech, I took him out to lunch. Our conversation ranged from politics to family to African and American cuisine. The longer we talked, the more I was struck by the similarities between us. We were the same age, knew many of the same people, shared many of the same ideas.