As my alarm sounded at 4 a.m., I slowly put on my clothes and walked to the chicken house that I was scheduled to work at. When I arrived, I hopped in the shower and found myself on the other side, clean and refreshed, wearing the chicken-house work clothes. I made my coffee and stepped outside to see the sun slowly rise over the Negev Desert. Everyone seems to dislike getting up early in the morning, but when you see the sun rise over the horizon glowing a brilliant red and lighting up the once-dark land, it gives you an unrelenting hope for the day and future, as if there are no problems in the world.

I walked into the chicken house, filled with 20,000 chickens, where I had been working for a month now. It was a sea of chickens that you could literally dive into. Today, we were doing injections. After four hours of working, hanging the chickens, gathering them and injecting them, it was time for breakfast.

We all came in and washed our hands. When I sat down and started making my breakfast, I looked at the people around me, and the word “beautiful” came to mind. We all were wearing the same old and used work clothes, but you could still tell the uniqueness of each person. I had chickens – and feathers scattered all around my work clothes. Everyone did. There were people from the Middle East, the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia all sitting together, smelling of chickens – and we were all equal.

For more than four months, I lived and worked on a kibbutz in Israel. A kibbutz in Israel is a farming and industrial commune based on socialism and democracy. On the kibbutz, everyone is equal. Everyone puts forth an equal effort, whether you’re working in the vineyards, chicken house or any other industry, and in return, everyone gets their basic needs taken care of. Children get their education from preschool all the way to university paid for. When there is a wedding in one of the families, the wedding and ceremony is paid for. When there are health needs, the kibbutz pays for it. The socialist kibbutz life is the power and potential of what communities can be.

Socialism tends to be an idea that scares people away in the United States. When this ideology is brought up, most people probably think of Stalin, the U.S.S.R and the Cold War. However, if one would look to Europe or my simple kibbutz, they would realize the possibilities of socialism and democracy working together.

Currently, our government is facing problems concerning health care, social security and rising tuition cost. These problems and downfalls all come from the basis of a capitalist ideal and profit. According to an article on the NPR Web site dated Aug. 29, 2007, more than 47 million Americans have no health insurance. A U.S. News and World Report story finds that the average cost for a public university is $13,000 a year. Isn’t this the land of opportunity, where everyone has an equal chance for better health care, education and opportunities?

I know there are people out there who will argue there is no way we can pay for a universal health care plan or provide university education to everyone. However, the truth is, we can. Our government has increasingly, over the years, spent more and more on military spending. According to www.globalissues.org, our current military spending is at $626 billion. As a nation, where have our cares gone?

Whether you grow up in the inner city or the suburbs, or your parents are doctors or servers at a restaurant, everyone should have the same opportunity to attend college and rights to health care.

I believe in a nation where everyone is equal. I believe in a nation that provides for its own people the rights of health care and education. I believe the United States has the potential to be this nation. If we continue to care more about capital gain and big business, then the rich will continue to get richer and the poor will continue to get poorer. The United States needs to look into socialist ideals, just how most of Europe does, to provide equal opportunities to all people in this nation. The United States should be an equal community based on equal sharing and love, not money and greed.