I am a self-empowered, self-reliant, self-actualized Republican woman. I ride my own Harley. I am responsible for everything in my life. From the age of 6 months, I’ve hated being controlled.

My elementary parochial school education taught me self-discipline. At Douglass College, I was required to read the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx. All were shocked by the Communists’ intention to take over our country. Horror – I felt it deeply back then in 1960 as though it were a premonition of things to come.

Marx laid out the plan, which he said would take a long time to implement. They would destroy us from within taking control of our financial institutions, undermining our educational institutions and the family unit, and eliminating God. Capitalism and free enterprise are the Marxists’ enemies. That ideology hit me hard back then. My grandparents fled the death threats of Communism in Eastern Europe.

Bullies are running the schools, hotbeds of negativity, and our children are living in fear. A person of communist persuasion cannot lead them higher, only lower and into a system of controls the likes of which you cannot imagine. Many nations can tell you what that is going to be like. It is the destruction of the spirit.

I have risen from poverty. I control my own investments. Well-educated, I understand that everyone profits from corporate success, even unions. I do not wish to be controlled in any way by a communist government. I carry a .38-caliber pistol that makes me feel as long as I am aware, I can protect myself. Think – if women were armed, they could prevent their own rapes.

I encourage women to abandon a life of government dependency and empower themselves. By taking responsibility and not blaming others, we are free to become empowered. Believe that you can do more for yourself in a free system and never have to wait for the government to take care of you.

Susan Balas-Whitfield

Durango