Dear Editor:

Letter to the Editor "Grant No Man the Authority to Make You His Slave" by Peter Ragnar (Whole Number 127) was very interesting: "When asked how one could be a free man and yet a slave, the ancient Athenian slave, Diogenes, answered, 'Simply, by the number of times you say master.'"

To put it in modern terms, you say "master" every time you
1) go to the store and pay the sales tax after you buy food, fuel, or supplies;
2) carry a Driver's License;
3) use or refer to your Social Security number (like when you open a bank account or receive a paycheck from your employer with Social Security deductions);
4) drive a car with a license plate issue by your master;
5) flush the toilet and accept the master's processing of your wastes;
6) use electricity that is provided by a master's-owned generating plant;
7) take medicine that has been approved by the master (FDA);
8) send your children to a state-run kindergarten/school/university;
9) send a letter via the United States Postal Service;
10) use the "licensed" services of a physician, real-estate agent, broadcaster, telephone, insurance agent, day-care, or taxi;
11) when you tender or accept Federal Reserve notes issued by the master.

This is the short list, of course, I hope our author, Peter Ragnar, would tell us how Diogenes would reply to his masters if he were in our situation.

- Anonymous