Just today, Nov 4, 2025, I received this message from “Handy Barker” concerning this poem, which was quoted as a Dr. Seuss poem everywhere I could find it, or I would have quoted him as its author. Here is the note I received
Message:
Funny that you borrowed my Dr. Seuss poem from 2015. I was recently retired in Roseburg Oregon as a HS Drama teacher and saw all the chaos between HIllary and Bernie and how divisive it was to call Bernie a “Socialist” when “Democratic Socialist” was more accurate. I spent a whole morning researching the term “DS” and felt I could use my still-sharp skills of breaking down a complex idea and teaching it to people on my newly-opened FB account. I’ve changed it a bit since then, but I’ve often said I think Dr. Seuss is both the greatest teacher of the 20th century and the greatest writer because he could not only create effective anti-Nazi propaganda–with other brilliant creators Frank Capra and Stan Lee, who created Spiderman–but that he could teach us to unclench our closed minds with simple books a five year old could understand like in “Green Eggs and Ham”. I lost the original of this, but have found that if I google it, people from Oregon to China have posted it anonymously–which is how I saw it. In the face of the NYC election with Zohran Momdani running as a DS, I was looking for it and was grateful you have it here for me. Peace.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
Everyone wants these things for themselves, but if someone else wants them, then those someone else’s are the ‘socialists”. It’s a wacky world, says this person who is both a socialist and a feminist (another one of “those” words)…
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Guess what? I’m a socialist. I thought that was a dirty world throughout America.
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Throughout certain factions of America.
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Love this Judy!
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Awesome. I guess I’m a socialist. 🙂
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Me too, Mr. Peach…Do you find it as ironic as I do that Trump’s supporters so fear socialism when their champion is so closely aligned with his communist buddies?
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Don’t get me started. Lol.
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Okay. We’ll let it rest for a bit.
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I was thinking the same as the first commenter: If I want clean water, a lush environment, safe food, nice roads to drive on, etc, for myself, that only makes me self-centered. If I want these same things for everyone, and am willing to sacrifice my own pleasures to see that others get their fair share, then I’m inclined toward socialism. If I understand the concept rightly.
Yanks slam my country, Canada, for being “socialist”, partly because we have universal heath care. It’s never right to expect the govt—i.e., other taxpayers—to support everyone who doesn’t want to work. However, I can’t imagine letting people die because they can’t afford health care. So maybe I’m half a socialist? People fault our system because there are long waiting lines for care. Sadly, for every good use there’s always some waste or abuse.
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Many Yanks don’t slam Canada. More than half of my friends are Canadian..The same people are sprinkled over the earth in different percentages. I feel exactly as I think you do that everyone deserves health care. Even in Mexico, they have free medical coverage for everyone. If you can stand the wait…
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