Ana Menendez , should give an apology

http://forums.miami.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=kr-miamicuba&msg=6367.1&ctx=0

After three days, The Miami Herald only published two responses, but not a single apology from Herald Staff or from the journalist Ana Menendez. Please read article below, and forget about the word Cuban, and replace it with African American after each insulting word. Dont you think that after three days, the Herald Board of Directors will publish an apology by this time??

Exiles offended Miami Herald columnist Ana Menendez should let go of her anger toward Cuban exiles (Rabble-rousers gravitate to easy targets, May 15). She should stop insulting Cuban exiles by calling them the ''Cuban Mafia,'' a phrase coined by Fidel Castro and his cronies to describe Cuban Americans.

The exiles she constantly disparages in her column simply are trying to let their voices be heard against a tyrant who has destroyed their country of birth, and his regime is still torturing fellow Cubans on the island.

Instead of despising Cuban exiles, she should be indignant that communism is alive and well in Cuba.

MARIA EUGENIA ORDONEZ, Miami

I am offended by Ana Menendez constant harassment, venom and put-downs when it comes to Cuban Americans or Cuban-born Americans. Is it necessary for her to offend an entire community every time that she writes? Is it that we all are considered terrorists, thieves, outcasts?

If she is so concerned about the community why isn't she writing about insurance, taxes and dishonest politicians? These are real issues in Miami-Dade County and not what she calls ''Cuban Mafia.'' If I am considered Cuban ''mafia'' member, so is she -- isn't she Cuban American, too?

FRANK RODRIGUEZ, Miami

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In My Opinion Rabble-rousers gravitate to easy targets By ANA MENENDEZ amenendez@MiamiHerald.com

NO OUTCRY -- Where have all the right-wing lunatics gone?

A French company with ties to the Castro regime -- its affiliate has built 11 resort hotels with the Cuban military -- now wants to bring its construction skills to the $1 billion tunnel at the Port of Miami.

And the protesters? Busy boycotting the mom-and-pop businesses that advertise on an obscure AM radio program.

This is what the mighty Miami Cuban Mafia has come to. Their nemesis is dying, their bitterness has grown old and their power has dwindled to sad experiments in self-parody.

I miss them already.

YET

Bouygues Travaux Publics' bid for the Port Tunnel hasn't gone completely unnoticed, but the opposition, at least so far, has been insignificant.

Miami attorney Nicolas Gutierrez, who represents those who had property expropriated after the Cuban revolution, boldly predicted: ``I think once the public becomes fully aware of this, especially at the County Commission level, then Bouygues is going to have a very hard time winning this contract.''

Or maybe not. As The Miami Herald's Larry Lebowitz and Matthew I. Pinzur reported: The County Commission registered a deep, heartfelt yawn.

Natacha Seijas, who went nuts when she was dissed at the opening of the Performing Arts Center, suddenly seems to have connected with her contemplative side.

''I would have to do my duty as a county commissioner, but my Cuban heart would hurt tremendously,'' she told The Miami Herald.

That's right, swallow your pain. $1 billion is a lot of money. And if commissioners start to play ''More Cuban Than You,'' the Florida Department of Transportation may pull the $600 million they were giving to the cause.

Commissioners can't conduct foreign policy, but what's stopping everyone else? Where are all the people who protested Los Van Van's performance here? What happened to the Cuban patriots who boycotted The Miami Herald after the Radio Martí stories? Where are those who crusaded against the dangerous children's picture book Vamos a Cuba?

PICKING THEIR BATTLES

The rabble-rousers love to complain about speech they deem unorthodox. But they fall oddly silent when it comes to confronting powerful business interests like Bouygues or the Chinese Shangri-La hotels or our own Terra Group that sought to maim the Freedom Tower. Why go after the big guys when there are smaller effigies to fry?

Which brings us to Edmundo Garcia, the host of La Noche se Mueve (The Night Moves), heard weeknights on WNMA-AM (1210). He loves to intelligently stir things up, and he's provocative and well-informed. He is not, however, anyone's idea of ''powerful.'' Which made him the perfect target of a boycott against his advertisers.

''They have the right to patronize a Castrista, but we have the right to not buy from them,'' wrote Iliana Curra in a widely circulated e-mail. Within days, ''Ño Que Barato'' had pulled its ads.

Oh wow. Sure showed them. It's like a scary-funny children's cartoon: The old man gloats over the flea he's killed while behind him looms the shadow of Le Monstre.

Can't blame the boycotters, though. Exile has gone on for a long time. The people are old and tired. And at this late stage, it's easier to go after a radio guy than to slay the multinational.

That's Miami in the waning days of nostalgia: a place where politics is personal. And business is business.

Why should she apologize. She’s dead on target. The attacks on the use of the phrase “Cuban Mafia” is a strong man. Many people in SoFla have adopted the phrase as a way of describing the strident protestors of anything that rings of Castro. (And that’s not a bad thing.)
If anything, Ana is issuing a call to arms - a reminder to fight what is really important. It’s a similar call to arms that needs to reinvigorate the conservative base of this country (a base that has been splintered as much, if not more, by the spineless, power-hungry Republican leaders as it has by the left and the drive-by media.)

Remember what’s important and demand it. Otherwise, even if the GOP regains Congress and retains the White House, the barn doors could be wide open with only cobwebs left inside the barn.

Ana Menendez is in fact the child of Cuban Exiles... She is aware of the critical issue at hand and is assessing it through experience and point-of-view knowledge.