Socialist Action /February 2000
Commentary: Just Imagine Having to Grow
Up in Cuba
This letter by Mark Harris, a frequent contributor to Socialist Action,
was written as a reply to Chicago Sun-Times editorial writer Dennis Byrne's
Jan. 12, 2000, column, "Even Dad's Love Can't Outweigh True Freedom."
Dear Mr. Byrne,
You write in your column today that Elian Gonzalez should return to Cuba
only if his father "can guarantee that his son will enjoy all the freedoms
spelled out in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
I think you're onto something. In fact, why don't we apply that idea
to everyone everywhere? We could start by bringing over a few million Iraqi
children who, as a result of the U.S.-UN embargo and as documented by various
relief and medical groups, are being denied essential medical and food supplies.
Perhaps in this way we could make up a bit for the hundreds of thousands
who have in ready died, needlessly.
Poor Elian, just imagine having to grow up in Cuba! You find it "staggering"
that anyone would defend Cuba, because it offers universal health care,
schooling, and other social services. Why is that so staggering?
Cuba has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in Latin America, a
continent in which roughly 210 million people live in abject poverty. But
then again, most of those poor countries are friends of the United States,
and somehow I doubt that writers like you get nearly so worked up about
the abominable violations of human rights that regularly occur or have occurred
in places such as Haiti or Columbia or Chile or Argentina (where they used
to throw human rights activists out of airplanes over the ocean).
But, of course, some of these countries are "democracies" friendly
to U.S. interests. How interesting the double standard.
I would hardly call Cuba a "ruthless dictatorship." It is not
my impression that Cubans are terrified of their government, or afraid to
speak the slightest criticism lest they be done away with by death squad
or Caribbean gulag.
Perhaps if Cuba had not been subjected to a 40-year economic siege by
their Northern neighbor, a flowering of socialism and democracy might have
more chance to occur there. As I recall, Abraham Lincoln was not too tolerant
of Northern dissidence during the Civil War years.
You posture on the high moral ground of democratic ideals, arrogantly
assuming that the United States stands without question as the paragon of
all freedom. This is a lie. The United States has never supported true democracy
in Cuba.
If you think about it, this country's leaders had their chance, for decades,
and the result was Batista and the mob and an economy that served as a dependent
appendage of the American economy. Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution
were a response to the failure of the so-called democratic forces created
and supported by this country in Cuba.
Something else to think about: What has Cuba really done to us? I don't
know, except kick out some corrupt business elements. Certainly much of
the Cuban upper and middle class fled Cuba after the revolution, but not
because they believed in democracy.
They never did before, either; why should we believe they do now? Maybe
it was because they were tied in to a corrupt system. But I do know what
we have done to them-repeated CIA assassination attempts, poisoning their
livestock, and, oh, lest we forget, the little matter of invading the country.
By the way, the fact that so many Cubans left the country is not unusual
in a revolution. During our own war for independence, nearly a third of
the American population supported the British, and eventually fled either
to Canada or returned to England.
I find it the height of hypocrisy to see so many turn their ideological
hatred of Cuba's system of government into further justification for the
continued trauma of a little boy who belongs with his father. I believe
strongly in human rights, and I do not support their violation anywhere.
But that is not the issue here.
To say that little Elian must of necessity live in this country to be
truly free is as dishonest as it is arrogant. Besides, I can think of many
millions of children right here whose basic needs are not being met, because
of poverty and a whole host of social ills.
Perhaps I could take your position seriously if you applied it with across-the-board
consistency, as in the case of the many refugees who flee dictatorships
that just happen to be friends of the United States. And who are routinely
denied entrance to this country.
-Mark Harris
Evanston, Ill.
Socialist Action /February 2000 |