Posted on 07/26/2008 8:59:21 PM PDT by 2nd amendment mama
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day and on July 4 I celebrate America's. This year is special, because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence.
On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba and a few months later I was in the United States to stay. That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress.
I've thought a lot about the anniversary this year. The election-year rhetoric has made me think a lot about Cuba and what transpired there. In the late 1950s, most Cubans thought Cuba needed a change, and they were right. So when a young leader came along, every Cuban was at least receptive.
When the young leader spoke eloquently and passionately and denounced the old system, the press fell in love with him. They never questioned who his friends were or what he really believed in. When he said he would help the farmers and the poor and bring free medical care and education to all, everyone followed. When he said he would bring justice and equality to all, everyone said "Praise the Lord." And when the young leader said, "I will be for change and I'll bring you change," everyone yelled, "Viva Fidel!"
But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the executioner's guns went silent the people's guns had been taken away. By the time everyone was equal, they were equally poor, hungry, and oppressed. By the time everyone received their free education it was worth nothing. By the time the press noticed, it was too late, because they were now working for him. By the time the change was finally implemented Cuba had been knocked down a couple of notches to Third-World status. By the time the change was over more than a million people had taken to boats, rafts, and inner tubes. You can call those who made it ashore anywhere else in the world the most fortunate Cubans. And now I'm back to the beginning of my story.
Luckily, we would never fall in America for a young leader who promised change without asking, what change? How will you carry it out? What will it cost America?
Would we?
Manuel Alvarez Jr. Sandy Hook.
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You can say that again!
And soon we are going to be taken over by leftists in Denver.
My family is escaping to Florida that week! ;o)
Yeh...Wonder if they'll be cheering when the Welfare Checks in Kalifornicate start bouncing and the "refugees" move up there to continue their 'benefits'?????
I know I'll be smiling as they are in that pic ---- then.....
Some minds are programmed to “think”, others to “feel”. Unfortunately the feelers are on the ascendency. This woman you mentioned might be well educated (but I doubt that), nonetheless, she will follow Odummo to the cliff. I hope she doesn’t “feel” the pain when she finally thuds to the ground.
You hit the nail on the head! I've been "preaching" this for years! It's a pet peeve of mine when someone says "I feel"....grrrr.
Literacy tests have unfortunately often been rigged to favor those who in turn favor the party in power. That having been said, I've sometimes facetiously suggested that ballots should be printed with the candidates' names on half-inch colored stripes, one inch apart. A person wanting to vote would have to punch a hole touching their candidate's stripe while the ballot was, say, 25 feet away. They could use the hole-puncher of their choice. That sound like a good approach?
LOL...my preferred hole puncher is a .357
I'm not that steady with handguns. With a good rifle, though, I wouldn't have much problem though I'd have to practice in advance at 25' to figure out where the real point of aim would be.
Wow, Thank you for the post.
Most of the people in your pix look like pups.
“of course, speaking of Fidel, the not so funny joke at the time was that he got HIS job through the New York Slimes — er — TIMES.”
How so?
During the entire run-up to Castro’s overthrow of the admittedly corrupt Batista regime, the Times called Castro the “Robin Hood of the Sierra Maestras” (the mountains where Castro and his “merry band” were quartered) and informed their readers that Castro was a NOT the communist many here in America believed him to be. Once he seized control, he announced to the world that he’d always been a communist. In fact, his brother (who now runs things down there) and Che Guevera had been trained in the USSR.
The Cuban people had traded one home grown despot for another — who’d been essentially grown in the Soviet Union (then our arch nemesis) who now had an outpost 90 miles from Florida.
At least under Batista, the Cuban people had some economic freedom and could come and go with far more freedom than under Fidel.
And that’s how Fidel “got his job.”
Oh and BTW, it is THAT history of the NYT which scares hell out of some of us as we run up to the November election.
Will we one day look back and wryly remark that Obama got HIS job through the New York Times?
Very interesting and very sad for Cuba.
And I fear for our country.
“Oh and BTW, it is THAT history of the NYT which scares hell out of some of us as we run up to the November election.
Will we one day look back and wryly remark that Obama got HIS job through the New York Times?”
At least the NYTimes is losing readership, but unfortunately it’s not happening fast enough.
This editor’s letter is so powerful that I wish one of the talk show hosts would seek him out, and put him on their show.
Anybody here have contacts with any popular talk show host?
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