Dr. Ingram vs. Senator Rubio

An Ongoing Battle for Democracy's Soul
{Thursday, February 27th, 2014th}

      Dr. Robert B. Ingram {left} was, beyond doubt, one of the most decent and most respected citizens in the history of South Florida, namely Miami. He pulled himself up by his own bootstraps and attained a brilliant education, including a Ph.D. He became a world-class educator and served honorably as President of the National Conference of Black Mayors. All his adult life, America had no finer champion of children's rights, including the right to superb educations, than Dr. Ingram. He discriminated against no one -- not black children, nor white children, nor Haitian children, nor Cuban children. In the latter part of his life Dr. Ingram was easily the most respected person on the Miami-Dade County School Board and his goal, commensurate with his mission in life, was to enhance the lives of the children in Miami-Dade County and everywhere else.

     

     Dr. Ingram's love of children, all children, was spread around South Florida -- especially throughout the Miami-Dade County area. And the children, as well as their parents and teachers, all loved him back as the little girl in this photo is doing. In the Miami area and nationwide Dr. Ingram had no enemies, except among Cuban exiles. Apparently his concern for Haitian and Cuban children, including those back in their native countries, didn't sit well with the Cuban-exile elites who had dominated Miami economically and politically since January of 1959 when the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba was overthrown by the Cuban Revolution, which in turn sent many of the elites in the Batista-Mafia dictatorship fleeing back to South Florida to hook back up with the Cuban wealth they had spent a decade extracting from the island. Dr. Ingram was the antithesis to that historic fact. Sadly, Dr. Ingram and many other democracy-loving Americans fell victim to all those ex-Cuban elites and their bushels of money that quickly, beginning in 1959, overwhelmed all economic and political opposition first in Miami and then in Washington, D. C.

     

     
     Throughout his adult life, Dr. Ingram received a multitude of awards and commendations for his unparalleled work on behalf of children -- all children. The Haitian community in Miami, for example, presented Dr. Ingram the plaque on the left for all he had done for Haitian children. Of course, he did just as much for Cuban children but the Cuban community couldn't freely express its appreciation because they feared retribution. As it turned out, Dr. Ingram himself was fearful of Cuban extremists.

    
    Dr. Ingram wrote children's books such as "Mack and the Turtle" and gave the profits to elementary schools. He also crafted highly respected educational programs {as depicted on the right}. Dr. Ingram's brilliance, diligence, and innovative ideas benefited Miami-Dade County elementary schools and are copied to this day by other educational systems nationwide. 

   One innocent little children's book that Dr. Ingram admired was Vamos a Cuba {A Visit to Cuba}. It was among a series of twenty-four books by a very respected publisher that aimed to teach American children ages 7 to 9 about children in those other 24 countries. There were 34 copies of Vamos a Cuba in school libraries in Miami-Dade County. But the Cuban-exile elites that ruled Miami-Dade County objected to Vamos a Cuba, apparently because they resented the fact that the cover {left} depicted laughing, happy Cuban children on the island. Thus, the Miami-Dade County School Board, which included Dr. Ingram, voted 6-to-3 to remove Vamos a Cuba from all Miami-Dade County schools. To the surprise of many, Dr. Ingram voted with the majority. The books were removed, totally banned. Neither the ACLU nor the U. S. government, both of whom have adamantly defended many harmful and dirty books under Freedom of the Press regulations, mounted a defense of Vamos a Cuba -- all of which surprised no one because, since 1959, Cuban-exile elites have conducted themselves as a monolithic, unchecked, self-aggrandizing element within the U. S. democracy. But Dr. Ingram's vote to ban Vamos a Cuba was indeed surprising, even shocking to many. It seemed to defy all the great things he stood for. Plus, he had always conducted his life with immense bravery and unquestioned integrity, especially when issues involved children. But just before he died in September of 2007 Dr. Ingram revealed to the world why he had voted to ban Vamos a Cuba. He stated simply but poignantly that he was afraid not to vote for the ban because he feared either he or members of his family would be car-bombed if he had not voted to ban the little book. And once again no one -- including the U. S. government, the U. S. media, and the U. S. citizens -- reacted with shock at the great man's revelations about fearing car bombs if he didn't follow the dictates or presumed wishes of the Cuban-exile elites in Miami. Thus, like so many other events since 1959, the end of Dr. Ingram's life reflected a downward spiral for the American democracy whose first misstep was supporting the brutal Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba and whose second even more grievous error was supporting the transplanted Batista-Mafia exiles on U. S. soil in Miami. 

      Dr. Robert B. Ingram was indeed a great man, and a very brave one. His illimitable goodness also made him a very powerful force in Miami-Dade County, as evidenced by his bio on the right. But not even Dr. Ingram, during his lifetime, was great enough, or brave enough, or good enough to challenge the Cuban-exile elite that has ruled Miami-Dade County since 1959. That's when car bombs and other unchecked mayhem began to earnestly threaten and silence anyone who opposed them, as if on U. S. soil a Banana Republic-style regime had so easily supplanted democracy. Dr. Ingram specifically remembered car-bombs that had silenced the anti-terrorist Cuban-American newsman Emilio Milian and so many others. Thus, we can imagine his torment over being afraid to not follow his conscience when it came to Vamos a Cuba. But the great and decent Dr. Ingram, just before he died, let the world know the torment he had suffered because of his vote to ban Vamos a Cuba, a vote he felt compelled to cast to avoid a car-bomb. The death of a great man, Dr. Ingram, also signaled the death of democracy as generations of Americans had come to know it and as the Founding Fathers had envisioned it. Just before he died, Dr. Ingram showed his love of democracy by making it a point to reveal why he had voted to ban Vamos a Cuba. The everlasting shame is that the U. S. government, the U. S. media, and the U. S. citizens -- out of sheer cowardice or simple disrespect for democracy -- ignored the last great and brave act of Dr. Ingram's remarkably worthwhile life.

     Ted Turner was born in Cincinnati in 1938 and proved to be an American visionary. In 1980 he founded CNN as a 24-hour Cable News Network. He envisioned around-the-clock television news and he provided CNN with the talent and wherewithal to gather and report that news. His ideas pertaining to news were so innovative that he soon had a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that many others, such as Fox and MSNBC, would attempt to emulate. But, thanks to Mr. Turner, no one could either challenge or replicate CNN...that is till 1996 when Time-Warner purchased CNN for $7.5 billion. The first thing Time-Warner did was to fire Ted Turner because Ted's vision focused on news while Time-Warner's only interest was making money.

   Thus Ted Turner's CNN gamble made him a multi-billionaire but by selling his pride-and-joy to Time-Warner he also paved the way for the over-all failure of his brainchild. CNN as well as copy-cats like Fox News and MSNBC are today all money-makers while, at the same time, they are journalistic jokes. Unlike Turner's emphasis on actually going out and gathering news, the cable news organizations realize they can maximize their profits by focusing on talking-head pundits and celebrities who will readily flock to the studios to assuage their egos or promote their latest books, movies, or political ambitions. By tying their anchors down to their desks to engage with the talking-heads, the networks don't have to waste money by actually going out and covering news.

    For example, one should hope that Ted Turner was not watching CNN Monday. CNN's best anchor, Wolf Blitzer, spent the majority of his time providing Senator Marco Rubio with a totally free and totally biased half-hour political ad to further Rubio's presidential bid in 2016. In the 24-hours leading up to that farce, CNN pummeled its meager audience with barrages of promos that never failed to advertise Rubio as "the rising star" and the prime "presidential candidate." If Ted Turner had witnessed all those Rubio promos that led up to the half-hour political ad disguised as a news interview, I believe a shamed Mr. Turner would have and should have cried.

    Marco Rubio is nothing more and nothing less than a political creation of wealthy right-wing power-brokers like the Bush dynasty, Fox News, and the Tea Party. But he is, in fact, a serious possibility to be the Republican presidential candidate in 2016. That reflects the precarious and tragic state of America's democracy that has become so susceptible to money and special interests. It also, of course, reflects the fact that Americans, if they are even concerned with such things as news and democracy, are daily propagandized by right-wing propaganda machines like Fox News, left-wing propaganda machines like MSNBC, and politically correct propaganda machines like CNN. In the digital age, the era of reading newspapers is over and the electronic "news" Americans are bombarded with is self-serving, biased, slanted, and puerile. But that's how a Marco Rubio is created. And that's how a democracy gets eroded and grossly distorted.

Once created, money-making celebrities like Marco Rubio are money-making media darlings.

   Of course, political celebrities are immune from making "career-ending" gaffes such as when Marco Rubio slyly reached way over to fetch a bottle of water in the midst of a major prime-time political speech. As a second generation anti-Castro zealot from Miami, Rubio made it all the way to the U. S. Senate with his official biography loudly proclaiming the obligatory "fact" that his parents had fled the Castro tyranny in Cuba for the "freedom of Miami." Later, of course, the St. Petersburg Times and Washington Post pointed out that...tuh...Rubio's family had actually fled the Batista tyranny in Cuba long before Castro's Cuban Revolution chased the Batistianos to Miami.

      Yet, as CNN promoted so profusely Monday, young political celebrity and rising star Marco Rubio is a prime presidential candidate in 2016. On the campaign trail in the past week Rubio has headlined a massive monument dedication in Miami honoring the thousands of Cubans who have died "fighting" or "fleeing" the Castro tyranny in Cuba. He has also {on his free political ads on CNN and elsewhere} fanned the flames of the ongoing anti-government street demonstrations taking place in Venezuela. And he has loudly assailed the government of Argentina as one that the U. S. government should harshly sanction...or worse. Of course, Mr. Rubio's diatribes against the Venezuelan and Argentine governments this week have nothing at all to do with the fact that the democratically elected Presidents of those two important Latin American nations have pro-Castro governments. It is expected that, when he sees openings, Mr. Rubio will target the pro-Castro Presidents in nations such as Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua, Bolivia, etc. After all, two generations of Cuban-Americans in Miami have become rich and powerful as anti-Castro zealots who hope Americans continue to believe that the mean, vile, despicable Mr. Castro chased all of the good Cubans off the island to Miami where they have flourished despite arriving in Miami without a penny or a peso to their names! {What happened to all that money the Batista-Mafia dictatorship siphoned from Cuba? Wolf Blitzer, of course, wasn't allowed to ask Mr. Rubio any tough questions because to do so would encourage other celebrities not to appear as free pundits, meaning the "news" shows might have to actually go out and cover the news}.

      The U. S. democracy has evolved into a two-party political system in which both parties are bought-and-paid for by special interests. Tragically, it now takes at least a billion dollars of special interest {anti-democracy} money to be a serious presidential contender. Marco Rubio meets that most critical criteria heading into the presidential campaign of 2016. Were he still alive, I wonder what Dr. Robert B. Ingram would think about Marco Rubio being a "serious" presidential contender? Ted Turner is still alive and I wonder what he would be thinking if he watched CNN provide Marco Rubio with his free day-long political ad? I'm a life-long, democracy-loving Conservative Republican and I believe you know what I think. {I would like to see both democracy and passenger pigeons return because their losses were very sad, dark days for America}.

Conclusion:

If these two gentlemen are the best the Republicans can muster, our two-party system has failed.
On a more gentle topic......

    ......this AP/Franklin Reyes photo shows the refurbished Capri Hotel at the break of dawn in central Havana's Vedado district. The Capri was originally built in 1955 by famed mobster Meyer Lansky during the Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Jack Lansky, Meyer's brother, managed the Capri. After the Mob was booted off the island by the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959, the Capri was no longer a gambling and prostitution mecca and was actually closed for many years. Now a $6 million re-modeling project has reopened it, signaling an improved Cuban economy.

     Just two blocks from the Capri is the famed National Hotel of Cuba. During the Batista dictatorship the National was owned by another of Batista's closest Mafia friends, Santo Trafficante Jr. of Tampa, Florida.

The Capri and the National today stand as monuments to the Mafia's demise in Cuba.
They also stand as testimony to how badly the Batistianos want to reclaim the island.

Batista in 1952 began selling the island to the Mafiosi and American businesses.

Major newspaper articles like this kept the American people fully informed. 

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