Life in the bottle has an opinion.

This 2008 Presidential election has me feeling like I live in the Twilight Zone. Never in the years that I have lived in this great country have I ever heard the plainly socialist agenda espoused by a mainstream political party so accepted and welcomed with totally uninformed enthusiasm! How can a major figure running for President of our country speak of the need to spread the wealth around by taxing our nation's producers to gift those who do not achieve?

Our society has operated for more than 200 years on the principle that hard work and effort provide the opportunity to create personal wealth. This wealth can be saved, spent, or invested at the entrepreneur's discretion. What right does the government have to take that hard earned wealth? Spreading the wealth around does not increase opportunity for non-achievers. Spreading the wealth around encourages sloth, not diligence as a work ethic. Spreading the wealth around fosters dependence on others, not a valuing of self-reliance. Spreading the wealth around creates a vacuum of critical thinking, not the promotion of creative ingenuity. The greatness of the United States was founded on those who diligently built their lives, families, and communities with hard work, who valued personal goals achieved through self-reliance, and proudly became economic leaders in the world with industrial and mechanical innovation.

My political viewpoint does not come from the vantage of having financial success or personal achievement. This year has seen the loss of my husband's job, the loss of our home, personal financial ruin, and a serious health crisis. My hope does not come from promises made in a Presidential campaign that the government will provide programs to "economically equalize" those facing hardships. My hope comes from seeing our economic system reward hard work and truly knowing that the United States has historically been the Land of Opportunity. I want to believe that my life will be better someday, because the only limitations I have are the ones I place on myself. I don't want my government to have the power to control my ability to create my own future, even if that means others have life better than I do right now. Economic achievement is more keenly appreciated when the realization of it is not an easy thing.

I fervently pray that the majority of this country's voters will wake-up before change destroys the personal freedoms that have been treasured by generations of Americans.