Cuba Remains A Pain in the Butt

By Merely Surviving

      To put it both mildly and succinctly, the island of Cuba has been a pain in the buttocks for the United States, especially since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 defeated the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship and particularly since 1961 when Cuba miraculously defended its revolution from a furious aerial bombardment followed by the ground attack at the Bay of Pigs. A reminder of this basic fact came this month -- May, 2014 -- when it became known that Cuba's renowned Biotechnology Center had invented perhaps the world's most effective treatment for acute hemorrhoids. Merely by surviving so long and actually thriving in areas such as medical research, the gritty little island has impressed many outside the tight confines of the United States -- such as the World Health Organization.

   The World Health Organization is located in Geneva, Switzerland. Thus, it feels free to applaud Cuba for its universal free health care as well as such things as its scientific work in discovering effective drugs to counteract such maladies as cancer, malaria, hemorrhoids, etc. The WHO has singled out Cuba for "being at the forefront in managing prevention policies and confronting global health problems." The WHO, if not the USA, salutes Cuba for its extremely low infant mortality rate, which it listed at 4.2 for every 1,000 live births in 2013. Also, the WHO saluted Cuba for presently having 50,000 Cuban doctors and nurses working in the poorest sections of some 65 nations around the world. And the WHO, if not the USA, is impressed that Cuba has the world's largest medical school, known as The Latin American School of Medicine. Incredibly, at least in the WHO's eyes, Cuba provides free medical scholarships, including room and board, to poor students from around the world, including the USA. When such students leave with their degrees after six years, they do not have to worry about repaying student loans that, in the USA, are mostly designed to enrich rich bankers. Instead, foreign graduates at The Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba are merely asked to keep their promise to return, at least for a time, to work in the poor neighborhoods from whence they came. The WHO appreciates those efforts and innovations by Cuba. Perhaps Americans, including hemorrhoid sufferers, should too. The WHO also has praised Cuba for the Operation Miracle program that provides totally free eye operations that have restored sight to thousands of extremely poor people in the Caribbean and throughout Latin America. Of course, Americans, who are told Fidel Castro hoards all of poor Cuba's money for himself, wonder how Cuba can afford such extracurricular activity as The Latin American School of Medicine and Operation Miracle, programs that would make rich nations proud if they would pay for them. 

   A company in Jamaica that had tangential ties to the U. S. was fined for shipping a box of baby aspirin to Cuba because it violated dictates of the embargo against the island. When such things have routinely happened since 1962, when the embargo was established, the American people are told that enforcement is necessary because to allow such things as a box of baby aspirin to reach the island would benefit or enrich Castro. Americans, coated with stupidity and/or cowardice, meekly accept the embargo that the rest of the world abhors. Thus the embargo, dictated by anti-Castro exiles, endures although de-classified U. S. data revealed years ago that the purpose of the embargo was to starve and deprive the Cuban people to encourage them to rise up and overthrow Castro.

   
   This photo courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library was taken on April 18, 1961. It shows a victorious Cuban soldier interrogating a captured CIA/Cuban exile attacker, Jose Miro Torra, at the Bay of Pigs. Some 1200 of the attackers were captured after the ground assault that followed a devastating bombing attack against all three of the island's military airfields.

  Cuba ended up selling the Bay of Pigs captors back to the U. S. for $53 million, which was paid mostly by the Kennedy administration with a shipload of Gerber Baby Food, as Cuba requested. Venezuelan Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal, who had sent Celia Sanchez cash and weapons during the Revolutionary War in the 1950s, warned her that if Cuba sent the Bay of Pigs prisoners back to Florida in 1961 they would resume constant hostilities against the island. But apparently she felt the island's children needed all those bottles of Gerber Baby Food. Of course, as with the baby aspirin from Jamaica, the U. S. was "concerned" that Fidel Castro himself would consume all the Gerber products.

   As it turned out, Cuban babies like Josefina Vidal benefited mightily from those boxes of Gerber Baby Food that the U. S. reluctantly delivered to Cuba as payment for the Bay of Pigs prisoners. All grown up now, Josefina Vidal is the Cuban Minister in charge of North American Affairs, namely America's ongoing designs to unseat revolutionary rule on the island. On Oct. 20-2002 Josefina was one of four celebrated speakers, and the only Cuban, at a historical session moderated by historian James G. Blight at the Kennedy Library. That night Josefina was introduced by Caroline Kennedy as "one of Cuba's celebrated Gerber babies!" When she took the podium, Josefina recounted how much her mother "appreciated" all that Gerber baby food.

And by the way...............

       ........here's another bit of fascinating Celia Sanchez/Cuban history. In the photo above, that's Venezuelan Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal on the left. Celia Sanchez was the most important recruiter of money, supplies and weapons in the revolutionary war against the Batista dictatorship. One of her main contacts and suppliers of money, supplies and weapons was Admiral Larrazabal. In January of 1959, just weeks after the triumph of the revolution, Celia Sanchez took Fidel Castro to Venezuela to personally thank Admiral Larrazabal and meet Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt. Admiral Larrazabal in 1958 had led a coup that overthrew dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez, who is shown on the right in the above photo. But Larrazabal, Celia's important friend, was a good guy. Later in 1958 he ran in an honest election for President but lost to Betancourt, another good guy who would become Venezuela's first elected President to be replaced by another elected President.

     Celia Sanchez, Cuba's all-time greatest revolutionary leader, was quite adept at distinguishing between the good guys and the bad guys. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, she considered Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal one of the good guys. In the above photo, she's counting some of the help that he provided her during the war. Celia famously and meticulously accounted for every peso or dollar the rebels spent. In Caracas in January of 1959 she personally presented Admiral Larrazabal a detailed accounting of the money and supplies he had provided her. "But dear Celia," he replied. "You were always the only person I fully trusted!"

And truth be know................

       .................Celia Sanchez, the petite doctor's daughter, has always been a bigger pain in America's butt than the macho Fidel Castro ever thought about being.

And by the way...............

       ........the New York Times on Monday -- May 19th -- used this image of Huon Song-wol, a beautiful North Korean entertainer, in a major article that revealed she is alive. She is the most popular singer in North Korea and is reputed to be North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's favorite "former" girlfriend. But rumors persisted for days that, on a whim, he had her machine-gunned to death. Then she appeared quite healthy on national television, above, to salute the leader "for his heavenly trust and warm care" in promoting the arts. The New York Times used the article to stress that a lot goes on in North Korea, most of it bad, but exactly what often remains mysterious.

But the sheer beauty of birds is not mysterious.

     My favorite magazine, Birds & Blooms, featured this photo taken by Marie Read. Right after he paused for the photo, he flew off to hide the acorn for a future meal.

      Marie Read for Birds & Blooms took this photo of two hard-working Woodpeckers stashing acorns for future use. Chickadees, Nuthatches and many other species also plan ahead in this manner, often with sunflower seeds or even peanuts.

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Cal Thomas and Other Thugs

Vs. the Pope and the Good Guys

Thugs are defined as bullies or depicted as street muggers. Some are more sophisticated.

    Cal Thomas is one of America's most ubiquitous conservative journalists. His newspaper column is nationally syndicated by Tribune Content Agency. He is, of course, a regular on Fox News. Even America's top daily newspaper, USA Today, affords Mr. Thomas a major weekly forum. But he is, by my definition, a thug because he obviously believes there should be more inequality between the worlds rich and poor, the haves and have-nots. As far as Mr. Thomas is concerned, he believes the ultra-rich are not rich enough and the ultra-poor are not poor enough. And that's a thuggish belief...in my opinion.

     Being a media insider camouflages Cal Thomas's thuggish tendencies. His nationally syndicated column on May 14-2014 erroneously and brazenly assailed Pope Francis who has, to Mr. Thomas's chagrin, famously dedicated his papacy to helping elevate the world's billions of poor people. Mr. Thomas, in the first paragraph, wrote: "...he {Pope Francis} has it backwards. Instead of taking more money from those who have earned it, he should advocate for creating new wealth." Of course, Mr. Thomas advocates creating new wealth for the already wealthy like him, not for the maligned poor majority that Pope Francis cares about.

      Pope Francis was born 77 years ago in Argentina. His laudable priority to improve the lot of the world's majority poor faces many obstacles, such as the many forums provided to Cal Thomas. The world's poor will not inherit the earth but neither should they inherit scorn and disrespect from rich and powerful thugs.

       Pope Francis disagrees with Cal Thomas regarding this fact: The 85 richest people in the world have wealth equal to the poorest 3.5 BILLION people, and the chasm is widening each and every day!

     Cal Thomas and Pope Francis also obviously disagree over how the extremes of massive wealth have occurred and how it perpetuates and exacerbates from generation to generation. It's often the product of a few powerful thugs assailing the backs of the majority poor...and then passing along their riches to their offspring, who replicate the practice in future generations. Did the rich man depicted above need all that money? Did the poor man depicted above deserve a livable opportunity? Cal Thomas apparently believes this rich man doesn't have enough dollars; Pope Francis obviously believes this poor man propping up the rich man deserves a living wage, especially if he has children to feed, clothe, shelter and educate.

In the U. S., Cal Thomas apparently is not concerned with this statistic.

And Pope Francis should not be assailed just because HE IS CONCERNED.

       In the 1950s a few already rich Americans prompted the U. S. government to support a passel of already rich Mafia thugs as the dictators on the nearby island of Cuba. This was to enable the unholy rich to get richer and more unholier. And that's what happened, scarring future generations in both nations. 

       As this Batista-era photo illustrates, the wholesale pillaging of Cuba by the rich minority made the majority poor on the island very poor and then poorer. Thus, innocent families like this were left without anything resembling proper shelter, food, clothes, health care or educational opportunities.

       The extreme greed and brutality of the Batista dictatorship in Cuba, made possible with the aid of U. S. tax dollars and military equipment, created a revolution. It was unique from its outset because it was spawned by the extreme bravery of the female half of the Cuban population, such as these mothers.

       Three of those outraged Cuban women -- Vilma Espin, Celia Sanchez, and Haydee Santamaria -- enshrined themselves as incomparable guerrilla fighters against the supposedly unbeatable Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Then in Revolutionary Cuba -- immediately after the Batistianos and Mafiosi had been chased to safe havens like Miami -- these three women were the major factors in reshaping Cuban standards to benefit children, not their torturers. The transition was expected to be short-lived but it has survived.

     Starting in January of 1959, at their first opportunity, the three greatest Cuban heroines -- Vilma Espin, Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria -- created the Federation of Cuban Women as arguably the strongest and most vital addition to Revolutionary Cuba from January-1959 till this very day. The Federation of Cuban Women recognized that women were more important on the island than men because women had the primary responsibility of taking care of the island's babies and children. Thus, the Federation of Cuban Women guaranteed to the island's children free shelter, free food, free health care for life, and free educations through college. Far more astounding than the 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution is the fact that the Federation of Cuban Women to this day, against insurmountable odds, maintains its dominant themes on the island while knowing a return of the Batistianos would end its reign.

     The malevolent and self-serving greed and capriciousness of Revolutionary Cuba's Florida-based enemies has actually helped account for its startling longevity in the face of omnipotent forces aligned against it. The U. S. embargo against Cuba, for example, was established in 1962 for the stated purpose of starving and depriving the Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow Fidel Castro. This was right after the 1961 military attack at the Bay of Pigs had failed miserably, making Castro even more of a revolutionary legend. And the embargo came after a multitude of CIA-Mafia-Cuban exile assassination attempts failed to kill him but did manage to greatly enhance the Castro legend and his future legacy. Thus, in a paradoxical twist of history, the Castro legend is based primarily on two factors: {1} His astute recognition that the extremes of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship had created a female force on the island that possibly could be utilized to defeat and overthrow even a U.S.-backed dictatorship; and {2} the cruelty and ineptness of his enemies have combined to provide him and his legacy with enough support on the island to fend off the combined forces of his much more powerful enemies. Since 1959, as a primary by-product or offspring of the Cuban Revolution, anti-Castro forces have controlled the Cuban narrative in the United States but not elsewhere.   For example........................................................

      .....this distraught Cuban girl is now an adult. Go to Cuba and tell her that Fidel Castro is the bad guy and his enemies are the good guys. This photo was taken at Jose Marti Airport in Havana on Oct. 6-1976. The girl and her mother were waiting for Cubana Flight 455 to return from Venezuela with two dozen teenage athletes, one of them the girl's brother. As this photo was taken, she and her mother had just learned Cubana Flight 455 had been blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb. All 73 on board had been murdered. In Miami, the media reported that celebrations of the bombing included two infamous quotations: "It's the biggest blow yet against Castro" and "There were no innocents on that airplane." The euphoric quotes were lies.

     Today memorials like this remind Cubans and Latin Americans that such things as the bombing of Cubana Flight 455, as well as the aftermath concerning the terrorists and their supporters, was not "the biggest blow yet against Castro" and that, indeed, civilians on a harmless airplane are, in fact, "innocents." The two infamous quotations related to Cubana Flight 455 were shoved down the throats of Americans who have been forced to swallow them. But the rest of the world hasn't swallowed them.

 

      The greed of a few at the expense of the many created the Cuban Revolution, which shocked the world on New Years Day in 1959 by chasing the Batista-Mafia dictatorship off the island, mostly to a safe haven in nearby Miami. To this day, almost six decades and two generations later, Americans are told to accept continuous assaults on the island's majority because that mean man, Fidel Castro, deserves it while the good guys -- the Batistianos and the Mafiosi -- deserve to regain their island playpen and piggy-bank. 

       This Bill Gentile/Corbis photo depicts uniformed school children in Revolutionary Cuba today. Unlike the impoverished children shown in the earlier Batista-era family photo, these children in Revolutionary Cuba are guaranteed free food if needed, free shelter if needed, free health care for life and free educations through college. They also happen to live in safe neighborhoods. This is true despite the fact that the island has sustained the longest and cruelest economic embargo {since 1962} ever imposed by a powerful nation against a small nation...an embargo, by the way, that has been embellished by such things as the military attack at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, multiple assassination attempts against Cuba's revolutionary leaders, the terrorist bombing of a civilian Cuban airplane in 1976, and huge fines and other penalties levied against even friendly foreign nations and companies that do business with Cuba. The Cuban Revolution has made mistakes since 1959. But starving and otherwise abusing children is not among those mistakes. Cal Thomas disagrees. He also disagrees with the Pope's compassion.

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Why U.S. and Cuba Fight

Because It Benefits A Few

       If it were left up to these two women, the acute animosity that has existed between the United States and Cuba for decades could be ended by this time tomorrow. That's Roberta Jacobson on the left. She is the top U. S. diplomat in the State Department when it comes to Cuba and Latin America. That's Josefina Vidal on the right. She is Cuba's top diplomat when it comes to the United States and North America. Both of these brilliant ladies believe wholeheartedly that Cuba and the United States should be good neighbors and key trading partners, not bitter enemies. They talk frequently, sometimes face to face, and those are the sentiments they sincerely express to each other. Thursday of this week -- May 15th, 2014 -- Josefina Vidal flew from Havana to Washington to meet once again with Roberta Jacobson, this time for Cuba -- as it typically does -- to explain to the U. S. why it arrested four Miami residents on April 26th that Cuba believed were on the island to sabotage military bases. As with hostile airplanes from Miami flying over Havana, Cuba prefers that the U. S. itself be aware of terrorist threats against the island emanating from U. S. soil so, hopefully, the U. S. will do something about it. In addition to discussing the four newly arrested Miami visitors, Jacobson and Vidal again this week discussed the saga of Alan Gross, the American imprisoned in Cuba that both women would like to have back in his Maryland home instead of serving a 15-year sentence on the island after being charged and convicted of spying. Ms. Vidal believes the U. S. is unwilling to seriously negotiate Mr. Gross's predicament because such things as his continued imprisonment benefit a handful of anti-Castro elites in the U. S. who, through two generations, have thrived on U.S.-Cuban belligerence. The fact that Ms. Jacobson again this week invited Ms. Vidal to Washington indicates the two women are in concert with each other and share opinions regarding U.S.-Cuban relations.

       Roberta Jacobson -- a Brown University graduate -- is a fine lady, a brilliant diplomat, and Western Hemisphere expert since 1982. As America's most important official regarding Cuban matters, she should be afforded the wherewithal to negotiate sanely and decently on issues that affect most Americans and most Cubans. But she can't because for six decades U. S. relations with Cuba have been dictated by a handful of miscreants who benefit economically, politically or revengefully from U.S.-Cuban hostility. 

       Josefina Vidal is a fine lady and a brilliant diplomat. As Cuba's most important official regarding U. S. matters, she should be afforded the wherewithal to negotiate sanely and decently on issues that adversely affect most Americans and most Cubans. But she can't because for six decades miscreants who benefit economically, politically or revengefully from U.S.-Cuban hostility have dictated that sanity and decency applied to U.S.-Cuban relations would not align with all the benefits they derive from the status quo. 

       Josefina Vidal is willing and anxious to fly to Washington on a moment's notice if she and Roberta Jacobson believe discussing Cuban and American issues will even slightly ease the belligerence between the two countries. But the ongoing tragedy for Cuba, the U. S. and the region is that a few self-serving war-mongering elites, not Vidal and Jacobson, have firm grips on America's Cuban policy. That accounts for perpetrating hostility between the two neighbors decade after decade, generation after generation.

      Since 1959 U.S.-Cuban relations have been dictated solely by a handful of Cuban-exile elites and a handful of their influential and self-serving sycophants. Meanwhile, the majority that could have impacted that travesty has been either too unconcerned or too intimidated to weigh in on the issue.

 These two women are trying to negotiate sanity and decency into U.S.-Cuban relations.

They should be allowed to proceed.

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Founding Fathers Craved Cuba

And the Craving Still Exists
But first..........

      ........this Willow Haven Outdoor photo caught my eye. The brave, lucky couple is standing on their favorite rock in Norway. It is wedged in an alpine crevice of the Kjerag Mountain range.

Meanwhile.............

      .......meet Colonel Alejandro Castro Espin. He is the son of Cuban President Raul Castro and the late revolutionary heroine Vilma Espin. On Tuesday of this week Alejandro led a Cuban delegation to Moscow. He personally signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Russian Security Council and tentatively agreed to a Russian-Cuban pact relating to a joint use of space for peaceful purposes. The "Voice of America" website quoted Alejandro as saying, "Russia and Cuba need an effective cooperation tool to respond to sensitive issues. The memorandum may define priorities for cooperation to ensure effective security on both sides." (UMMMMmmm...?}

     After all these years, the indomitable Thomas Jefferson remains celebrated as America's greatest and most important Founding Father. He was born in Shadwell, Virginia in 1743 and died on July 4th, 1826. He was the principal author of America's Declaration of Independence and the President of the United States from 1801 till 1809, among his myriad of momentous, incomparable achievements.

     To this day, even apart from his Declaration of Independence masterpiece, Thomas Jefferson is America's most quoted person. In the last years of his life, he had a fixation on...CUBA! No kidding. In 1820 Mr. Jefferson wrote: "Cuba is the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of states." Later in 1820 Mr. Jefferson wrote this salient suggestion to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun: "The United States ought, at the first opportunity, to take Cuba." 

      Beginning on July 12, 1900 this poster saturated America in remembrance of Thomas Jefferson's burning desire that the United States should one day "take Cuba." As you study this poster, note that in the lower-right portion there is the celebration in July of 1900 of the "American Rule in Cuba." This, of course, was shortly after the United States, to sate its craving for Cuba, had provoked and then easily won the Spanish-American War in 1898, providing the U. S. with control of Cuba once and for all...except, of course, when the Cuban Revolution astoundingly changed things in 1959. The two men prominently featured in the center of this poster are William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. McKinley was President of the United States from 1897 till 1901 when he was assassinated six months into his second term. Teddy Roosevelt was then President for two terms from 1901 till 1909.

     In 1898 America's most prized warship was the ultra-modern USS Maine. It had been built in Philadelphia and commissioned in 1895. In 1898 President McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt, a naval officer, were extremely proud of this ship. So were America's two most powerful newspaper moguls -- William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. McKinley, Hearst and Pulitzer also had two primary goals: {1} They wanted Cuba; and {2} they wanted Teddy Roosevelt to succeed McKinley as President when McKinley's second term ended. They knew that could happen if Teddy became a military hero, even a fabricated one. They also knew that Spain, which owned Cuba, was too weak and far too extended to put up a fight if the U. S. could come up with a pretext {excuse} to attack! What if, uh, we sacrifice the USS Maine and, uh, a few young sailors? No problem. President McKinley, goaded by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, ordered the USS Maine to sail to Cuba and dock in Havana Harbor on a, uh, good-will mission.

BOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM..... 

    On February 15, 1898 a powerful explosion in Havana Harbor blew the USS Maine to bits. The terrorist bomb killed 258 people, mostly young American sailors. The top officers, perhaps not coincidentally, were reportedly partying on shore. The U. S. had its pretext to declare war on Spain, using the war-cry "Remember the Maine!" to garner approval from the duped American people. Of course, from 1898 till the present, the American people have continued to be duped regarding Cuba.

     It was well known that the last thing Spain would do is blow up America's prized ship in Havana Harbor to provoke a war it couldn't possibly win. Spain, well aware of America's desire for Cuba and also aware that the U. S. had an insurmountable military edge, had been bending over backwards to pacify President McKinley's war-mongers, including Hearst and Pulitzer. But to seal the deal America's newspaper moguls plastered provocative articles, like the one above, all across the nation. Note the headline "THE MAINE WAS DESTROYED BY A SPANISH MINE." It is much more likely, of course, that the U. S. blew up its own ship as a pretext for the Spanish-American War although some historians believe it was an accident.

    President McKinley sent Teddy Roosevelt to win the easy Spanish-American War in Cuba. Hearst and Pulitzer sent their top reporters -- and even famed artist Frederic Remington -- to Cuba to make sure Teddy got the lion's share of the credit for winning the war. The pretext worked perfectly -- at least for the rich people who stayed home but not for democracy nor all those young sailors aboard the docked USS Maine. The easy victory in 1898's Spanish-American War finally made the U. S. the dominant power over Cuba. And posters like this claimed that Teddy led the brilliant charge up "San Juan Hill" to bravely win the decisive battle of the war. The paid propagandists for Hearst and Pulitzer overwhelmed the American people although, in fact, San Juan Hill was no more than an ant hill in military terms. But the American people were not in Cuba to see that; what they saw was propaganda like this poster. And soon thereafter, McKinley was assassinated and, indeed, Teddy Roosevelt was President for the next eight years, making sure he took good care of his rich pals -- especially Hearst and Pulitzer. And -- oh, yes! -- the U. S. had replaced Spain as the imperialist power in charge of Cuba, just the way Mr. Jefferson had dreamed in 1820!

      If you do a Google search of "Propaganda of the Spanish-American War" you will be directed to a long, insightful article that begins with this sentence: "The Spanish-American War (April-August 1898) is considered to be both a turning point in the history of propaganda and the beginning of the practice of yellow journalism." Study the graphic above and you will begin to understand how America's fixation to dominate Cuba has, since 1898, adversely affected the U. S. democracy. The U. S. reasons for provoking the Spanish-American War were abominable, made more so by the fact that, once it dominated Cuba, democracy for the island was never a priority. For many of the same reasons that Pulitzer and Hearst prompted the Spanish-American War, 54 years later -- in 1952 -- the U. S. teamed with the Mafia to support the wicked Batista dictatorship in Cuba! All along the way, U. S. citizens who could have brought sanity to U.S.-Cuban relations have been either too ignorant, too intimidated or too unpatriotic to defend the Jeffersonian principles of democracy. 

      The fate of the USS Maine is merely a chaotic tidbit in the pantheon of U.S.-Cuban history. But it is a big tidbit. And it brings us back to Thomas Jefferson. Yes, Mr. Jefferson -- as proven by the actual quotations at the top of this essay -- longed for the day when America would take Cuba. That day came in 1898 with the treaty that ended the Spanish-American War. The unfathomable treaty, by the way, was signed in Paris with no Cuban in attendance. That fact as well as the rest of the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, I believe, would have made Mr. Jefferson weep. I believe the quotation above, which he made in 1816, reflects that feeling. While Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase and his championing of Manifest Destiny revealed his desire for a gluttonous America, most of all he loved democracy although he owned slaves and fathered children by the beautiful slave Sally Hemings. Once the U. S. obtained dominion over Cuba, Mr. Jefferson would have expected democracy to take hold on the island. He was wrong. The U. S. decided that rich Americans could best be served in Cuba by having U.S.-backed dictatorships to sanction their pillaging in exchange for kick-backs. By 1952 the U. S. even teamed with the Mafia to thrust upon Cuba the ultra-thieving, ultra-brutal Batista dictatorship. The quote above suggests that Mr. Jefferson would have been appalled that the Spanish-American War, started with the deaths of those young sailors, was at the behest of "moneyed incorporations" such as the wealthiest newspapers that backed Teddy Roosevelt back in 1898.

     By the way, this is considered the best likeness of Sarah "Sally" Hemings, the beautiful slave girl at Monticello. She had six children by Thomas Jefferson, four of whom survived long enough to eventually gain their precious freedom.

    This Jeffersonian quote also could be associated with U.S.-Cuban relations, which Mr. Jefferson surprisingly was obsessed with. In Batista's Cuba in the 1950s, the Cuban people feared their dictators; in the U. S. since 1959, Americans seemingly have feared objecting to Cuban-American dictates by the transplanted Batistianos. Mr. Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, best defined tyranny and liberty with the quote above. Does this quotation explain why the American people have been fearful of criticizing such things as the American theft of Guantanamo Bay in 1903, the bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 in 1976, etc.?

       Mr. Jefferson would likely say that the U. S. support of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba {1952-1959} marked America's departure from democratic ideals.

           But the transplanted Cuban Mafia in Miami would probably have saddened him more.     

      Mr. Jefferson's fascination with Cuba, tyranny, and liberty -- I think -- is best defined by this quotation. That's why I have repeated it as a coda to this essay in which I am merely trying to state two facts: 

{#1}

The Cuban Revolution says a lot more about the United States than it says about Cuba.

{#2}

 And so does the terrorist bombing of Cubana Flight 455!

Thomas Jefferson would have wanted Americans to react sanely to both events.

And if that is so, he would have been acutely disappointed.

     In a democracy when the majority of citizens are either too duped or too scared or too uninformed to participate, a handful of self-serving cretins can take full advantage. That's why the bombing of the USS Maine in 1898, killing scores of young Americans, should not have been allowed to benefit the alleged perpetrators. And that's why the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 in 1976, which killed scores of young Cubans, should not have been allowed to benefit the alleged perpetrators. And that's why, from 1898 till today, the island of Cuba says a lot more about superpower America than it says about Cuba itself.

      The Founding Fathers, particularly Thomas Jefferson, intended for the people -- not the government and not a few looters -- to have the power in America's democracy. That simple but majestic principle worked wonderfully from 1776 through 1945 when the Greatest Generations of Americans courageously defended Democracy. But then...in 1947 the secretive CIA was formed and in 1952 the U. S. teamed with the Mafia to support the wicked Batista dictatorship that pillaged Cuba, creating the Cuban Revolution that in 1959 booted the Batista-Mafia dictatorship out of Havana...all the way to Miami, as it turned out. As the above graphic illustrates, Power to the People was a great concept...as long as the People had the courage, the will, the intelligence and the patriotism to manage it. Those four qualities need to resurface.

       Frank D. Roosevelt, America's only four-term President, saved Democracy in 1945 just before he died. That ties him with Abe Lincoln as America's all-time greatest President because Lincoln had saved Democracy in 1865 just before he died. The quotation above indicates that Franklin D. Roosevelt understood the essence of Democracy. But since 1945 America has not been guided by a Franklin D. Roosevelt...or an Abe Lincoln. Therefore, amazingly, a neighboring island -- Cuba -- says more, to a significant degree, about the U. S. Democracy than the U. S. says. The "real safeguard of democracy," to quote FDR, "is education." Americans since 1898 have gotten their education regarding Cuba from a handful of war-mongering, proselytizing, propagandizing plunderers who benefit from the turmoil and hostility that results from constantly targeting the island. FDR, I believe, would recognize the demise of that democratic "safeguard" as related to Cuba. Unfortunately, FDR is not around to deliver one of his "fireside chats" in defense of both America's sacred Democracy and mankind's common Decency.

 Thus, to the rest of the world, this is how America's lustful craving of Cuba appears.

      This Friday Barbara Walters, 84, concludes her remarkable television career. She acknowledges that one of the highlights was being driven on a tour of Havana by Fidel Castro on June 6th, 1977.

         On May 1, 2014 -- the month Barbara Walters retired -- the 87-year-old Fidel Castro, although very ill and confined to his Havana home -- was the dominant figure at Cuba's May Day Parade, as this Reuters photo indicates. After his passing, his image and legacy may be even more pronounced, largely due to the excesses of his enemies before and after the Cuban Revolution, which will forever bear his stamp.

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