Posted on 04/12/2002 1:22:34 AM PDT by ppaul
For the past several months the King County Council has considered a proposal which I introduced to build a "sister-county relationship" with Granma Province in Cuba. The measure has sparked heated controversy at the council. Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and right-wing groups have denounced me as a communist and an enemy of democracy.
I recently led a delegation from King County to Cuba (I paid my own expenses) and Granma Province on a fact-finding mission to explore building this relationship.
I met hundreds of wonderful people who love Americans but scorn the American government.
I met people with a rich understanding of their own history, and a shared commitment to the direction their country is taking. I saw poverty but not hunger. I saw a Third World nation with a first rate education and health care system.
We saw Havana, perhaps the oldest great city in the Americas. It is the nightmare of a Seattle architect, because acre after acre of its beautiful buildings are crumbling in a nation too poor to maintain them.
But Havana is also the dream of a thoughtful Seattle developer who could easily envision mile after mile of restored condos in livable urban neighborhoods.
I encountered Tim Eyman's vision -- a nation with no taxes and no infrastructure. The roads are crumbling; the mass transit is random at best. I saw former Republican gubernatorial candidate John Carlson's dream -- a nation with little crime and no need for "Three Strikes and You're Out." I encountered safe streets with a steady police presence.
And I finally got to meet the people that the United States has been targeting for 40 years with its trade embargo, its Helms-Burton Act, and its restrictions on my right as an American citizen to freely travel to Cuba. I met Carlos, Josie and 2-year-old Manuel.
Four of us from Seattle were walking through a beautiful, crumbling neighborhood in Havana when we passed Carlos and his family who were riding (all three) on their family transportation, an old bicycle.
We struck up a conversation. Carlos teaches English at a vocational school, and Josie has learned from her husband.
They invited us to their apartment for coffee. They entertained us in a roughly 800-square-foot apartment, which I would have to describe as dismal. The sink, stove, and toilet sat side-by-side in a corner with a roof that leaked when it rains. He explained that he makes $15 a month, but pays little for food and housing and nothing for health care or education.
Carlos was supportive of the Castro government, but wistful that he can never afford any consumer items "or to take my wife out to dinner once or twice a year."
He longs for the day the U.S. embargo will be lifted and trade and tourism can help build the Cuban standard of living.
We later flew about 500 miles from Havana to Granma. We stayed in the lovely and historical capitol city of Bayamo, and traveled about to other towns, visiting three schools and several other sites.
We saw a standard of living in rural areas far higher than I have encountered in my limited Third World travels, to Mexico and China.
We met rural Cubans who had rarely encountered Americans. Time and again they reacted with smiles and tears when we expressed our affection for the Cuban people and our opposition to the embargo. We found teachers and students and farmers and government officials who were seeking to build Cuba in the face of so many obstacles. We found support for Castro.
What is our government's goal in isolating Cuba from the United States? If we learn anything from 9/11, or from the hatred between Israelis and Palestinians, it is that we have to build trust across national, religious and cultural lines.
We are pursuing a sister-county relationship in order to build understanding between the people of Granma, Cuba and King County.
I romantically believe that America would benefit if the Garfield High Jazz Band could travel to the city of Bayamo, Granma and demonstrate to Cubans the beauty of American jazz.
Link to article HERE.
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What a whiner!They entertained us in a roughly 800-square-foot apartment, which I would have to describe as dismal. The sink, stove, and toilet sat side-by-side in a corner with a roof that leaked when it rains. He explained that he makes $15 a month, but pays little for food and housing and nothing for health care or education. Carlos was supportive of the Castro government.
What bullsh*t! Does this idiot think Castro would let them visit with anyone who ISN'T supportive of the Castro government? This dipshit "Carlos" pays for "healthcare" allright. He gave up his rights as a human. He gets to live in squalor - in a pig-sty. Don't tell me he doesn't pay. These pitiful Cubans pay and pay. And they get jack squat. The "people's revolution" with free healthcare, myass.
I met hundreds of wonderful people who love Americans but scorn the American government.
Ya'll been hangin with the wrong crowd, which is why. They ain't so wonderful as they'd have ya believe. Them right-wing groups got more sense then y'all'll ever have.
The liberal solution? Send the local high jazz band to Havana. Maybe they can play "Kumbuya" with a New Orleans beat, hopefully loud enough to drown out the screams of those Castro tortures for opposing his repressive regime.
For a second there, I thought this was going to be a "city of evil" story. Then again, Ithaca probably has a political exchange program with Cuba.
King County Council member Dwight Pelz isn't a Communist he's a Commie Pinko. (Seattle P-I, 4-11-02, 'County could build ties with Cuban people')
A Communist comes right out and says he's a Communist. A big, bold red statement. A Commie Pinko on the other hand doesn't really have the courage of his Communist convictions. He just likes the elitist ideology of it, how it sounds as it drivels off his tongue while sipping Chardoney at some tax payer funded gala. Hence, his defense of Communism isn't big, bold or red but a washed out pink.
Unfortunately the cowardliness of Commie Pinkos does not make them any less dangerous to democracy, in fact it makes them more so.
Let's help Council member Pelz say what he really wanted to in his editorial about Communist Cuba if he'd only had the courage.
Pelz: "I recently led a delegation from King COunty to Cuba and Granma Province on a fact-finding mission....I met hundreds of wonderful people who love Americans but scorn the American government." Translation: I scorn the American government even though I have made my living off of it most of my adult life. I hate our Democratic Republic and think Communism is superior. In my effort to sell you on Communism I will ignore the facts.
Pelz: "I encountered safe streets with a steady police presence." Translation: I saw first hand how safe a police state can make Communist Party members feel.
Pelz: "I saw poverty but not hunger." Translation: We eat too much in America. In Cuba the government rations food to the masses. That's the way it should be. However government employees, like Castro, are exempt from such rations and I agree with that.
Pelz: "[While in Cuba] we passed Carlos and his family who were riding (all three) on their family transportation, an old bicycle." Translation: I hate cars when other people own them. I use mine responsibly but most citizens don't, plus they are too fat anyway and need the exercise they'd get if they rode a bike. In the long run they'd be better off carless.
Pelz: "Carlos was supportive of the Castro government...." Translation: I support Communism and love what Castro has done with it.
Pelz: "We found support for Castro." Translation: The hundreds of thousands who have braved the ocean to escape communist Cuba and Castro didn't know what they were doing. While we were being wined and dined by Cuban Communists they paraded people in front of us who loved communism.
Pelz: "I romantically believe that America would benefit if the Garfield High Jazz Band could travel to the city of Bayamo, Granma and demonstrate to Cubans the beauty of American Jazz." Translation: What's important here is the romantic Communist ideology. If you ignore the facts, that Cubans are forbidden the right to travel, the human rights violations that Castro inflicts, the poverty, the police state, the lack of free speech, Communism looks pretty good and that's what's important. Plus I'm getting a lot of press coverage out of this Cuba stuff but some of it's a little too hot for me. If I could drag some kids into it, like the Garfield Jazz Band, I could hide behind them. Instead of debating the virtues of Communism or acknowledging the terror of living under it I could just says things like, "It's for the kids" and "Can't we just all get along?".
Clearly Mr. Pelz did not travel the Elian Route on his trip to Cuba.
Linda Jordan
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