Decades of Hurting America
Erin Schumaker {above} is the outstanding Health Editor at the Huffington Post. Her latest article is entitled: "Cuba's Had A Lung Cancer Vaccine For Years, And Now It's Coming To The United States." Ms. Schumaker said: "CineVox, which is both a treatment and vaccine for lung cancer, has been researched in Cuba for 25 years and provided free to the Cuban public since 2011." The vaccine has helped Cubans and cancer patients in other countries but not the U. S...because of the embargo first imposed against Cuba in 1962. It was put in place in 1962 to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to overthrow Fidel Castro, but it has starved and deprived the U. S. democracy in the eyes of the entire world. As the article by Ms. Schumaker reminds me, the decades-long hostility towards Cuba may please and benefit a few powerful Cuban-Americans but it serves to harm everyone else, including America's cancer patients.
Since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship, two generations of anti-Castro Cuban-Americans have benefited drastically -- revengefully, economically, and politically -- from dictating America's Cuban policy with practically no democratic resistance to speak of.
In April of 1959 Celia Sanchez, the leading player in the victorious Cuban Revolution and later in Revolutionary Cuba, took notice that key elements of the ousted Batista dictatorship had regrouped in South Florida and, still with backing from the U. S. government, had already begun creating paramilitary units around Miami and a military unit at Fort Benning designed to recapture Cuba. That was when Celia Sanchez first coined the word "Batistiano" with this firm proclamation: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." Celia died from cancer at age 59 in 1980; Fidel still lives as he nears his 90th birthday in August. And, most notably, Celia's bold proclamation still lives.
In April of 2016 Josefina Vidal, now Cuba's primary expert on America and Batistianos, noticed that two viciously anti-Castro first-term Cuban-American U. S. Senators -- Cruz and Rubio -- were Republican presidential candidates. The astute Ms. Vidal then opined: "It now seems that the Batistianos have a new plan. They now plan to CAPTURE the White House first and then RE-CAPTURE Cuba." And that was an analysis, not a joke. Ms. Vidal, like Celia Sanchez, doesn't joke about Cuba's hard-earned sovereignty.
This montage is courtesy of The Miami Herald and WLRN. If you study it and do a little Googling, you will better understand what Celia Sanchez in 1959 and Josefina Vidal in 2016 meant when they used the word "Batistiano." And you'll better comprehend why the aforementioned article by health expert Erin Schumaker reveals how much the Batistiano transition from Cuba to the U. S. has harmed America and Americans. The photos above reflect three generations of the Diaz-Balart family. On the left is the grandfather Rafael; he was a powerful mayor and legislator in Cuba. Standing next to him is his son, also named Rafael; Rafael the Son was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship and one of its most significant leaders that fled to South Florida, where he became one of the all-time richest and most powerful anti-Castro zealots. Rafael the Son, in fact, created the first anti-Castro paramilitary unit -- the White Rose -- in South Florida. On the right-top is Lincoln, Rafael the Son's son who was born in Havana. On the right-bottom is Mario, Rafael the Son's son born in South Florida. Both Lincoln and Mario have been elected from Miami to the United States Congress where their anti-Castro zealotry continued full bore. Knowing such things will help you know how and why the U. S. Congress and the Republican presidents since 1959 have also been Batistiano-like to the detriment of Cubans on the island, Cuban-Americans, and Americans.
Candace Johnson is a wonderful lady. A renowned cancer expert, Dr. Johnson is the CEO of the Rockwell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. On behalf of her cancer patients, she has waged an heroic fight against the Batistiano-inspired and United States Congress-engineered U. S. embargo of Cuba. When President Obama bravely opened many doors to Cuba and sliced into the embargo, Dr. Johnson begged New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to go along with his entourage to Cuba earlier this year. She met with the Cuban scientists that invented CineVox, the cancer vaccine she covets for her patients. And she got permission from the Cuban government to obtain it free of charge if it will help poor Americans. She then had to come back to the United States and beg the Batistiano-directed Congress. The aforementioned article by Erin Schumaker liberally quotes Dr. Johnson. You can go online to access it.
Dr. Candace Johnson is merely a tiny microcosm of the vast array of Americans who have suffered for decades because of a U. S. Cuban policy designed to cater to a handful of revengeful, greedy Cuban-Americans, and their easily acquired sycophants, at the expense of most Americans, most Cubans, most Cuban-Americans and most people around the world, as indicated by the yearly vote in the United Nations.
President Obama is doing all he can to erase as many evils of America's Batistiano-sanctioned Cuban policy as he possibly can. But his enemies also include a bought-and-paid-for Congress, the intimidated and largely incompetent U. S. media, apathetic U. S. citizens, and even the Supreme Court that in 2010 made it legal for individual and corporate billionaires to use unlimited cash to distort America's democratic process. Moreover, Mr. Obama's two-term presidency is fast coming to an end in January. After that, it is unlikely that a money-crazed political system will be able to elect a President that possesses Mr. Obama's guts, intelligence, and love for democracy. In other words, beginning in January of 2017, the image of America as depicted above may never again have a force like Mr. Obama to sincerely try to oppose it.
Columbus discovered Cuba and America in 1492.
But since 1492 being "Good Friends" has been a problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment