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When I was in junior high I discovered the magic of mascara. Just mascara. That’s all my mother would allow me to wear. No other makeup, no eyeliner, no shadow, and no face powder was allowed. Because my sister and I were singers and I played the guitar to accompany us, my mother allowed me to wear the mascara for our performances but it wasn’t long until I was applying the Maybelline everyday. I thought it was the secret charm that gave me power over boys. I learned to apply the mascara perfectly so that it seemed natural. My friends of course, were allowed to wear much more makeup but I knew I couldn’t push the envelope in our family so I made the most of the mascara.

I was really into music, especially the Beatles but there was something about The Rolling Stones that really creeped me out. I didn’t see what other shrieking females saw in Mick Jagger. He seemed like an effeminate screamer with a very unattractive mouth. The Stones’ song, Paint It, Black really bothered me. One night I had a dream that the Soviet Union conquered the United States and shut down all capitalistic enterprises. I was not allowed to have mascara. It was a nightmarish dream, accompanied by the song, Paint It, Black.

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Julie Christie had beautiful eyelashes.

This was my first revelation about capitalism. I childishly began to comprehend that Americans had the freedom to buy and sell, thanks to our founders and system of government. I could blithely save my money and go to the store and purchase my beloved mascara because we lived in a free country.

It wasn’t long before the movie, Dr. Zhivago appeared in the movie theaters. I was captivated by it and began to study history. I learned that the novel the movie was based on had been banned in the Soviet Union as well as the movie. Indeed, it was not until 1994 that the film was allowed to be seen in Russia.

As my sister and I began to prosper with our music I began to draw charcoal portraits of my friends at school - for pay. I bought more history books and historical novels and added to my own education.

I paid my own way through college (with a little help from my parents) and was able to resist the liberal onslaught from several of my college professors.

I married my West Point sweetheart and spent thirty years moving and traveling throughout this country, Europe and Panama. I learned first-hand about the inefficiencies of the military healthcare system. In fact, my recent surgeries are a result of the inadequacies of medical procedures, resources and physicians when we were stationed in Germany from 1999 to 2001.

Our American capitalist system has promoted most of the breakthroughs in medicine throughout the past two centuries. The Obama administration has taken over the banking industry, the auto industry and it now seeks to make health care a governmental concern.

I recall the scene in Dr. Zhivago when Yuri returns home to Moscow after the war to discover that his family home has been divided into tenements by the Soviets. If Americans don’t fight to defeat the Democrats’ dream of government provided health care we will be divided into tenements of rationed health care with little freedom to protest.

We must do it now. Losing our free-market choice to health care is the least of this, our freedom is already at risk. Obama is willing to proceed with the ensnarement of Americans into the “public option” no matter the cost. If that is allowed to happen we may as well paint it all black.