"Time to grow up" letter in the Chicago Tribune responding to George Will

This is a eloquently written letter from someone very familiar with the works of Ayn Rand, but has managed to mature beyond them. That the author comes from a largely upscale Republican enclave in Illinois makes as profound a statement as her argument.
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TIME TO GROW UP

This is in response to columnist George Will's "Ron Johnson: What the tea party looks like" (Commentary, May 27). I have been astonished and dismayed to discover, in the last two years or so, that Ayn Rand's novels, especially "Atlas Shrugged," are and have been such a strong influence on people we have trusted and on certain people who are running for public office. I was introduced to Ayn Rand by a journalism teacher I had in high school, about 1963. Being very young at the time, I remember being entranced with Rand's books. Her philosophy of everyone carrying his or her own weight, being strong and self-reliant, appealed to me very much.

But then something strange happened. I grew up.

I looked around at Rand's world, and I saw that there were no old people there, and no children. No one was sick. No one was physically or mentally handicapped. And I realized that the real world consists of all kinds of people, smart and not so smart, weak as well as strong, generous and greedy, foolish and wise. In other words, the real world consists of human beings, and every one of them contributes whatever he or she can, in his or her own way, to the society we all live in, and depends on that society to provide him or her with what he or she needs. None of us was raised in a cave, and none of us can say that we got where we are entirely by our own efforts.

And so I grew up, and repudiated Ayn Rand and her "philosophy." And until recently, it never occurred to me that any adult could still be influenced by her. I am sorry to find out that I was wrong.

— Barbara Lipkin, Naperville

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-vp-0609voicelettersbriefs-20100609,0,1140664.story

tying up the would-be Gullivers.

The truth is -- as the article states -- that we're all in this world together and things work best when we look out for one another.

Who likely provided him with nutrition, security, and an education.

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BP took the businesses of every fisherman along the Gulf Coast, not to mention those depending on tourists.

"Ayn, life is hard, too bad yours didn't end a lot sooner!"

greed never wants for philosophies and fig leaves to diguise its true nature.

In earlier incarnations, they were feudal lords, plantation owners, or robber barons.

have yet to have a non self-inflicted orgasm...

homeowners to use their homes like ATM machines, thereby running up debt in attempting to meet other expenses.

is that despite their vaunted concern for independence from a social perspective, they usually can be reliably predicted to vote Republican for economic reasons -- and in the process, for the same idiots that want to quash all their vaunted independence. Have you ever met a Republican that is anti drug regulation; pro prostitution; pro abortion?

Go figure.

DuPage is the stain of "red" in the heart of "blue" Illinois.

But like almost anyplace, there are some good people with their heads screwed on straight.