About
the author: Leon Weinstein was born in St Petersburg, Russia
in 1949. Leon received his MA as a Theater Director and during his student years staged several live
plays and wrote-produced-directed two short films. In 1974 he immigrated
to Israel and in 1986 to the United States.
In Israel Leon organized Educational Theater for Youth, wrote plays for children, directed and produced them and was twice nominated for the best Children’s Show of the year. He also published short humoresque stories in both Russian and Hebrew periodical publications. In the US Leon produced plays for children at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, in Jewish Museum of New York and later in LATC in Los Angeles.
After dissolution of the Soviet Union Leon took active part in establishing relations between new Russia and the United States. He and his wife Gulnara initiated sister city relations between St Petersburg, the city where they were born, and Los Angeles, their new and bellowed hometown.
In 1998 the couple established Weinstein Art Management, a company that scouts talented artists (fine art) around the world and represents them worldwide. Leon continued writing and his stories continued to be published in Russia, in the US and Israel.
In 2008 Leon began to feel that socialism is creeping into the life of America and started his quest of stopping socialism from destroying yet another country. Leon extensively writes on the subject, publishes video blogs on Internet and conducts seminars and lectures about hidden dangers of socialism. In May 2010 Leon wrote his “Letter to America.”
Says Leon: I would like to thank people who supported and helped me, and without whom this project wouldn’t happen. For years I was wring articles and open letters to American politicians in order to warn them about socialism slowly crippling into American life. I thought that however thin and small my voice can be, I have to try to talk sense to those who didn’t have any firsthand experience with the disease called socialism.
One day I received an email from an unknown to me person from Canada who have read my articles, saw videos I posted on internet and suggested that I shouldwrite a letter on behalf of all of us, emigrants from socialism, and ask likeminded people to sign it as well. “This way,” he argued, “your words will have more weight.”An immigrant himself, Eugene Nechamkin lives now in Canada and I am grateful to him for this idea.
I want to thank Les Weiss for countless hours he spent modifying and polishing my English. He is also an emigrant from the USSR, but with impeccable English (if you will find mistakes, this is because I added a couple of sentences after he finished his third and final editing). Les gave me so many ideas and facts during this process that he can be called a co-author of this letter.
I want to thank
two American patriots, L.B. Neal of http://americandaily.com/ and
John Longenecker http://www.goodforthecountry.
My wife Gulnara researched Internet and other sources to find facts for this letter. She is a staunch supporter of free enterprise and capitalism and was my usual inspiration. There were many people who volunteered to send this letter to all their friends and beyond and I am grateful for their help. Their names are among the first hundred who signed the letter.
If you are interested to read my other articles and letters, you can find some on http://www.LeonWeinstein.com/ or you can Google my name on Internet. There are several dozen of my videos with comments on the state of the Union during last couple of years and they are posted on U-tube. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this letter or any of my other postings, please send them to LeonWeinstein@hotmail.com.
I came to this country fifty years later than Ayn Rand, but encountered the very same problem she did. Americans, who built the best ever system for human habitation called “capitalism” are totally mislead about what it is and how it works. All she tried to do and all I with my humble expertise and talents am trying to do is to explain to you what it is you created. The purpose of my Letter to America in the words of the same Mrs. Rand is “to identify IT.”