A Lingering American Shame
Candace Johnson suffers because of America's Cuban policy.
Candace Johnson is the President and CEO of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. And yes, America's Cuban policy punishes her and millions of other Americans whose tax dollars pay for it.
The Roswell Park Cancer Institute is the oldest cancer clinic in the United States, and certainly one of the most renowned. Its leader, Candace Johnson, is surely one of the world's greatest cancer experts. Roswell Park and Dr. Johnson were recently spotlighted in a Huffington Post article entitled: "Cuba Has A Vaccine for Lung Cancer and America Wants It." The vaccine has been proven in Cuba and many other countries to be successful, and Cuba provides it free to poor patients. The reason America doesn't have it, of course, is two-fold: {1} The U. S. embargo against Cuba that has been in place since 1962 to appease two generations of Cuban-exiles booted off the island by the Cuban Revolution in 1959; and {2} the cowardice of two generations of Americans who have lacked the guts and the intelligence to oppose the embargo.
Earlier this year, taking advantage of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo {above} took a large delegation of prominent New Yorkers on a trade mission to Cuba. Dr. Candace Johnson, on behalf of Americans suffering from lung cancer, went along on that trip and, as shown above, she made a passionate speech on behalf of democracy, begging for the shameful U. S. embargo against Cuba to be relaxed at least enough to help American families being ravished by lung cancer. Of course, the brilliance and compassion of Dr. Johnson -- as well as the Cuban scientists who invented the cancer vaccine -- are over-matched by the pro-embargo crowd that successfully preaches this mantra: "Fidel Castro in 1959 chased Lucky Luciano and all the other nice people off the island. Even with the aid of the CIA, the Mafia, the U. S. military, and the U. S. Congress, we have been unable to kill or overthrow Castro, who is about to turn 90-years-old on August 13th after his brother Raul turned 85 on June 4th. The embargo we put in place in 1962 was designed to starve and deprive Cubans so they would rise up and overthrow Castro themselves, which they have not done. But we must keep the embargo in place because it at least punishes Castro and makes a lot of us in Miami very rich. So, if it hurts and shames America, I'm sure you Americans will understand." The majority of Americans, without a whimper, have meekly accepted such directives for over half-a-century as democracy-lovers cringe in disbelief.
The few great Americans -- such as Candace Johnson and President Obama -- who have bravely resisted the embargo, and other imperialist terrorist acts against Cuba, are often thwarted by the cowardice of the American people. Of course, it is neither politically correct nor healthy to say that, but not to say it is perpetuating a lie that harms innocent Cubans and Americans as well as democratic principles and innocent people all around the world. By having enough control of a bought-and-paid-for Congress, a handful of people can use the embargo to punish innocent and sovereign nations around the world, including America's best friends, if they do business with Cuba. Little Jamaica, for example, was fined for sending a box of baby aspirin to Cuba. Since 2009...and you may Google these statistics...the U. S. government has fined companies doing business with Cuba $14.4 billion, and counting. A British firm, CGS Services, was recently fined $614,250 for "using spare parts and equipment of U. S. origin on oil and gas exploration vessels operating in Cuban territorial waters." Why, you ask, are such ridiculous fines paid? The U. S. is the world economic superpower and if you don't pay the Cuban fines you can forget participating in the international financial markets. Cuba, of course, also is denied those international economic niceties by the longest and cruelest embargo in history, one that long ago, in all likelihood, would have brought much larger and stronger nations to their knees. Yet, Cuba still tries to stand tall.
As this Doing More With Less graphic indicates, the U. S. embargo hasn't destroyed Cuba and it hasn't starved the Cuban people on the island. But it has, since 1962, severely deprived them while also depriving Americans like Dr. Candace Johnson who would like to have Cuba's cancer drug for her lung cancer patients in the United States. Moreover, since 1962 the embargo has shamed the United States and its democracy in the eyes of the world...all for the purpose of sating the greed and revenge appetites of a few.
All the while....
...Americans are supposed to be too afraid, too stupid, and too unpatriotic to support great Americans like Dr. Candace Johnson. It seems Americans will sit back and allow Congress to keep the Cuban embargo in place for another half century.
In unanimity, polls show that most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and almost all non-Americans in the entire world strongly object to America's Cuban policy. Yet, propagandized, proselytized, and pulverized Americans have been taught to ignore such reminders as...the yearly 191-to-2 vote in the UN that reveals {in all the world} only Israel supports America's Cuban policy, and Israel is the recipient of untold billions of dollars each year in American aid.
Fueling America's abominable Cuban policy for the past half-century has been the mainstream U. S. media that has evolved into a giant-sized propaganda machine, as indicated by the above graphic. Jose Diaz-Balart is a Miami-based news anchor for NBC and MSNBC. His father Rafael was a key minister in Cuba's Batista dictatorship that was overthrown in January of 1959 only to quickly rebound on U. S. soil. Two of Jose's brothers -- Lincoln and Mario -- have been elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami. Only viciously anti-Castro Cuban-Americans get elected to Congress and only viciously anti-Castro Cuban-Americans become anchors or pundits on the U. S. networks or columnists for mainstream newspapers, such as Miami-based Alan Gomez at USA Today. Therefore, as Jose Diaz-Balart is doing in the above graphic, only vicious anti-Castro zealots -- such as Miami's Havana-born U. S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen above -- are interviewed in the mainstream United States media. In that milieu, the only thing that separates the mainstream United States media from being anti-democratic propaganda machines are a myriad of great, Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonists.
This political cartoon by the great Matt Wuerker is telling us that a mere handful of pro-embargo zealots have been able to defy American, Cuban and world opinions to keep the U. S. embargo in place for over half-a-century.
This political cartoon by the great Steve Sack tells us that the entire world and Cuba, long punished by the outrageously cruel and right wing-beloved U. S. policy, welcome the efforts of Obama to normalize relations.
This political cartoon by the great Paul Fell is telling us that the olive branch President Obama is trying to extend to Cuba still faces massive opposition from a minority of greedy, revengeful miscreants who have lavishly benefited from many, many decades of hostility towards the nearby island.
This political cartoon by the great Talal Nayer is telling us that Barack Obama is the only U. S. president who has possessed the combination of guts and intelligence to offer Cuba a friendly hand instead of belligerent arrows but, not surprisingly, Cuba is not sure that the handshake gesture can be trusted.
This political cartoon by the great Daryl Cagle is telling us that the bold and brash President Obama is lighting his Cuban cigar, and his Cuban detente, from the fiery flames being spewed out by a second generation of one-trick-pony Miami Cubans who are reluctant to let go of their lucrative political and financial piggy-banks and political power-bastions. Apart from superb political cartoonists, the mainstream United States media has neither the guts nor the integrity to tell such truths about U.S.-Cuban relations.
