A reminder on the gift of democracy

Boston Globe ^ | February 17, 2003 | Judy Belanger

[Cincinatus' Wife]

MARIA HAS RETURNED from an errand. She opens a can of condensed sweetener and pours it into a glass of cola and ice. I jokingly ask if the drink is Cuban. Yes, she replies, and it's ''glorious.'' She offer a taste. I decline. Thirty years ago, my friend Maria was a refugee, and later became a citizen of this country, after escaping from Cuba. While we sat together, as she enjoyed her luxury drink, a specific memory seemed to jar her. Her eyes grew still, yet clear, with a soft transparent tear moistening them. It was the look of someone who had drawn something beautiful out of the ashes of hardship.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Another title - "Be Grateful and Preserve Our Republic."

Fidel's Nobel Prize winning Prison for Women- A Women's Prison Known as Black Mantle - ***She says that the massive detention of innocent people in Cuba for the single reason of disagreeing with Castro's regime must stop. Citizens are thrown, without trial, into inhumane dungeons where they are physically and psychologically tortured. The women political prisoners in Black Mantle as well as in other prisons throughout the island are forced into the same dungeons with dangerous common criminals. The fact that the Castro regime does not allow international inspections of their jails must stop. It is time to stop denying the nightmare that has been going on for 42 years.

Maritza's is not an isolated case. About a million people have gone through Castro's gulag and those who survive tell stories that are much the same. But after 42 years the world still is not listening, especially the American people, just 90 miles away from the most brutal and repressive regime in the history of the Americas. It is a frustrating shame that because the U.S. media, which has failed to report the facts to the American people, must take much of the blame for Castro being and staying in power.***

Fidel Castro - Cuba

Cuban President Fidel Castro speaks to well wishers after casting his vote in the city of Santiago de Cuba during general elections January 19, 2003. Cubans voted in one-party general elections on Sunday, with President Fidel Castro saying the election showed defiance against U.S. efforts to destroy's the country's communist revolution. REUTERS/Rafael Perez

Stone: Castro's Charm Doesn't Affect Film - "…one of Earth's wisest people.." [Full Text] BERLIN - Oliver Stone says the charms of Fidel Castro did not cause him to lose his objectivity when filming a documentary of the 76-year-old Cuban president.

Nevertheless, the three-day encounter left a deep impression. "We should look to him as one of the Earth's wisest people, one of the people we should consult," Stone said at a press conference after "Comandante" was screened Friday at the Berlin Film Festival.

"The film is an attempt to portray the human figure," Stone said of the HBO documentary in which Castro talks about Che Guevara and the assassination of President Kennedy, and offers a rare glimpse into his private life.

Stone, director of "Platoon" and "Nixon," also was keen to point out the achievements of the Castro regime, such as providing schooling and basic services lacking elsewhere in Latin America, and said he hoped the film might prompt a change in U.S. policy.

"I believe the embargo is outdated," he said. "There is a difficult lobby in Miami and Washington which prevents us breaking this barrier. It points to the power of vengeance and obsessiveness." [End]

[weikel]

Democracy sucks and leads to socialism anyone vaguely on the right ought to despise it( majority rules and popular soverignity are at heart marxist/collectivist concepts which lead only to mob rule) our government was supposed to be a limited Republic and essentially it was until the "progressives" moved into American politics, in the early part of the 20th century.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Brings to mind one of Ronald Reagan's 3-minute radio essays that went something like this:

"Two friends of mine were speaking with a Cuban who had escaped Fidel's regime for the freedom of America... After awhile, the two friends said to one another: 'We don't know how lucky we are...' and the Cuban responded: 'How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to!' And then they understood the really important point: America is the last hope -- the last bastion of freedom on Earth... If we fail here, there will be no place for anyone to escape to."

May God bless Ronald Reagan.

[DB]

Freedom is expensive and is nearly always paid in blood.

Too bad the "war protesters" don't know that…

[Cincinatus' Wife]

"In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards... Even today, the Soviet Union cannot feed itself. The inescapable conclusion is that freedom is the victor. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan, Speech at the Brandenburg Gate, 1987.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Too bad the "war protesters" don't know that…

They don't know much of anything.

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

This article would be wonderful if we could substitute the word "Republic" for "democracy".

For those of you who need reminding of the difference between the two, read this!"

[ricpic]

When the Cuban woman offers the reporter Judy Belanger a taste of her "glorious" drink, the reporter declines. It's all well and good to make abstract statements about the brotherhood of man. But it doesn't ring true from a guest who lacks the decency or tact to make a gesture showing respect for the dignity of her host.

[weikel]

Bump.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

But it doesn't ring true from a guest who lacks the decency or tact to make a gesture showing respect for the dignity of her host.

I too found that curious.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Thanks for the quote.