(no subject)
First, read this article. It is ignorant.
OBAMA, CHE, AND JFK
By Jeff Jacoby
The Boston Globe
Sunday, February 17, 2008
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/02/17/what_would_jfk_do/
In 1963, John F. Kennedy was murdered in Texas by a fervent admirer of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. In 2008, a large Cuban flag emblazoned with the image of Che Guevara, Castro's brutal henchman, is prominently displayed in a Barack Obama campaign volunteer office in Houston.
Obama has been widely compared to JFK, most notably by the late president's brother and daughter. President Kennedy, a stalwart anticommunist, despised Castro and his gang of totalitarian thugs. But when word broke last week that Obama's supporters in Houston work under a banner glorifying Che, the campaign's reaction was to KRIV-TV image of Texas Obama volunteers with Che Guevara flag brush it off as an issue involving only volunteers, not the official campaign. After two days of controversy, the campaign issued a statement calling the flag "inappropriate" and saying its display "does not reflect Senator Obama's views." Would JFK have reacted so mildly?
In December 1962, Kennedy offered a blunt summary of the Castro/Che record to that date. "The Cuban people were promised by the revolution political liberty, social justice, intellectual freedom, land for the campesinos, and an end to economic exploitation," he said. "They have received a police state, the elimination of the dignity of land ownership, the destruction of free speech and a free press, and the complete subjugation of individual human welfare." Eleven months later, in a speech intended for delivery on the day he was assassinated, Kennedy regretted that Castro's "Communist foothold" in Latin America had "not yet been eliminated."
Were he alive today, it's hard to imagine JFK feeling anything but contempt for those who extol a dictatorship that has been crushing freedom and human beings for nearly 50 years. And it would surely pain him that so many of the cheerleaders are members of his own political party.
The lionizing of Che, a sociopath who relished killing and acclaimed "the pedagogy of the firing squad," is not just "inappropriate." It is vile. No American in his right mind would be caught dead wearing a David Duke T-shirt or displaying a poster of Pol Pot. A celebrity who was spotted with a swastika-festooned cap or an actress who revealed that she had gotten a tattoo depicting Timothy McVeigh would inspire only repugnance. No presidential campaign would need more than 30 seconds to sever its ties to anyone, paid staffer or volunteer, whose office was adorned with a Ku Klux Klan banner. Yet Che's likeness, which ought to be as loathed as any of those, is instead a trendy bestseller and a cult favorite.
A few years ago the New York Public Library gift shop sold Che wristwatches. These it described as "featuring the classic romantic image of Che Guevara, around which the word 'revolution' revolves." But Che's idea of revolution was anything but romantic. What he cherished was hatred and murder: "Hatred as an element of struggle," Chewatchbighe wrote in 1967, "unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine." It was a sentiment he expressed repeatedly -- and lived up to.
With Che at his side, Castro toppled Fulgencio Batista in January 1959. "As soon as they had seized power," notes *The Black Book of Communism*, a magisterial survey of communist terror and repression in the 20th century, "they began to conduct mass executions inside the two main prisons, La Cabana and Santa Clara." As chief prosecutor of the new regime, Che oversaw the bloodbath, ordering hundreds of executions in the first months of 1959. Those he killed, *The Black Book* records, included "former comrades-in-arms who refused to abandon their democratic beliefs."
Like totalitarians of every stripe, Che didn't scruple at the death of innocents. "Quit the dallying!" he ordered Jose Vilasuso, a conscientious government lawyer who was seeking evidence against several prisoners. "Your job is a very simple one. Judicial evidence is an archaic and secondary bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! We execute from revolutionary conviction."
Time magazine once called Che the "brain” of the Cuban Revolution, and saluted his "icy calculation, vast competence, high intelligence, and . . . perceptive sense of humor." A better description comes from journalist Humberto Fontova, who observes in *Exposing The Real Che Guevara* that Che was for Castro what Heinrich Himmler was for Hitler and Lavrenty Beria for Stalin -- "the snarling enforcer." Fittingly, a massive drawing of Che adorns the headquarters of Cuba's secret police in Havana.
That this sadistic thug's face also adorns the office of a US presidential candidate's supporters is appalling and disgraceful. That the candidate couldn't bring himself to say so is even worse.
(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.)
Then read my rebuttal, it is less ignorant, but far more logical.
By that logic, the confederate flag should be outlawed and abolished because to some... no, to many millions... it represents hatred, repression, slavery, and murder. But stickers, belt buckles, t-shirts, and of course flags emblazoned with the symbol are paraded around the south as a "cultural icon." It is just as negative and represents the same principals of hatred as the Che Guevara flag. The problem here is that many of these flag toting Southerners are Bush supporters and it is safe to say that the same confederate flag bumper stickers could easily be easily placed next to a Bush/Cheney 08 bumper sticker.
The point here is that President Bush doesn't get any flak from these Yokels using the unpopular symbols, and neither should Obama. These people represent themselves. If an Atheist goes out and kills ten people, he does not represent the Atheist community at all, yet many will project that image of a "godless murderer" onto Atheists in a heart beat. Nothing could be further from the case. Obama's supporters are missing the point of his campaign, just as the Hillbillies with their flags are missing the point of Bush's campaign. One symbol can support many things, and so can a person. If these renegade Obama supporters were the majority, I could see a concern. But they can brandish whatever flag or symbol they want, but their public display of ignorance (like a Neo-nazi's swastika, or the black panther fist in the air) should reflect on them, not something or someone else they support (like a patriotic German or an admirer of Martin Luther King). That patriotic German is not in accordance with Germany's feelings on WWII by displaying that swastika and the black man who raises his fist in the air promoting black power would be more apt to quote Malcom X in his rants than Martin Luther King Jr.
I'll use myself in an example. Should my "renegade" views on abortion excommunicate me from the catholic church (yes, I am technically a confirmed Catholic)? Probably, but the Pope isn't going to receive any criticism from his supporters or his enemies because of my beliefs. In fact, he has nothing to do with my "deviant beliefs." His own actions, and the majority of his followers' actions, dictate his own consequences.
With so many acknowledged molestation chargers against the Catholic church by bishops, archbishops, cardinals and priests alike, I can't help but question the level to which the pope is involved or had prior knowledge of these abominations. At least Obama's campaign recognized the supporters and responded to it in opposition, something that took the Catholic church thousands of years to do, not two days.
So, I will be voting for Obama in the final election. Not Che Guevara.
-Mike
OBAMA, CHE, AND JFK
By Jeff Jacoby
The Boston Globe
Sunday, February 17, 2008
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/02/17/what_would_jfk_do/
In 1963, John F. Kennedy was murdered in Texas by a fervent admirer of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. In 2008, a large Cuban flag emblazoned with the image of Che Guevara, Castro's brutal henchman, is prominently displayed in a Barack Obama campaign volunteer office in Houston.
Obama has been widely compared to JFK, most notably by the late president's brother and daughter. President Kennedy, a stalwart anticommunist, despised Castro and his gang of totalitarian thugs. But when word broke last week that Obama's supporters in Houston work under a banner glorifying Che, the campaign's reaction was to KRIV-TV image of Texas Obama volunteers with Che Guevara flag brush it off as an issue involving only volunteers, not the official campaign. After two days of controversy, the campaign issued a statement calling the flag "inappropriate" and saying its display "does not reflect Senator Obama's views." Would JFK have reacted so mildly?
In December 1962, Kennedy offered a blunt summary of the Castro/Che record to that date. "The Cuban people were promised by the revolution political liberty, social justice, intellectual freedom, land for the campesinos, and an end to economic exploitation," he said. "They have received a police state, the elimination of the dignity of land ownership, the destruction of free speech and a free press, and the complete subjugation of individual human welfare." Eleven months later, in a speech intended for delivery on the day he was assassinated, Kennedy regretted that Castro's "Communist foothold" in Latin America had "not yet been eliminated."
Were he alive today, it's hard to imagine JFK feeling anything but contempt for those who extol a dictatorship that has been crushing freedom and human beings for nearly 50 years. And it would surely pain him that so many of the cheerleaders are members of his own political party.
The lionizing of Che, a sociopath who relished killing and acclaimed "the pedagogy of the firing squad," is not just "inappropriate." It is vile. No American in his right mind would be caught dead wearing a David Duke T-shirt or displaying a poster of Pol Pot. A celebrity who was spotted with a swastika-festooned cap or an actress who revealed that she had gotten a tattoo depicting Timothy McVeigh would inspire only repugnance. No presidential campaign would need more than 30 seconds to sever its ties to anyone, paid staffer or volunteer, whose office was adorned with a Ku Klux Klan banner. Yet Che's likeness, which ought to be as loathed as any of those, is instead a trendy bestseller and a cult favorite.
A few years ago the New York Public Library gift shop sold Che wristwatches. These it described as "featuring the classic romantic image of Che Guevara, around which the word 'revolution' revolves." But Che's idea of revolution was anything but romantic. What he cherished was hatred and murder: "Hatred as an element of struggle," Chewatchbighe wrote in 1967, "unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine." It was a sentiment he expressed repeatedly -- and lived up to.
With Che at his side, Castro toppled Fulgencio Batista in January 1959. "As soon as they had seized power," notes *The Black Book of Communism*, a magisterial survey of communist terror and repression in the 20th century, "they began to conduct mass executions inside the two main prisons, La Cabana and Santa Clara." As chief prosecutor of the new regime, Che oversaw the bloodbath, ordering hundreds of executions in the first months of 1959. Those he killed, *The Black Book* records, included "former comrades-in-arms who refused to abandon their democratic beliefs."
Like totalitarians of every stripe, Che didn't scruple at the death of innocents. "Quit the dallying!" he ordered Jose Vilasuso, a conscientious government lawyer who was seeking evidence against several prisoners. "Your job is a very simple one. Judicial evidence is an archaic and secondary bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! We execute from revolutionary conviction."
Time magazine once called Che the "brain” of the Cuban Revolution, and saluted his "icy calculation, vast competence, high intelligence, and . . . perceptive sense of humor." A better description comes from journalist Humberto Fontova, who observes in *Exposing The Real Che Guevara* that Che was for Castro what Heinrich Himmler was for Hitler and Lavrenty Beria for Stalin -- "the snarling enforcer." Fittingly, a massive drawing of Che adorns the headquarters of Cuba's secret police in Havana.
That this sadistic thug's face also adorns the office of a US presidential candidate's supporters is appalling and disgraceful. That the candidate couldn't bring himself to say so is even worse.
(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.)
Then read my rebuttal, it is less ignorant, but far more logical.
By that logic, the confederate flag should be outlawed and abolished because to some... no, to many millions... it represents hatred, repression, slavery, and murder. But stickers, belt buckles, t-shirts, and of course flags emblazoned with the symbol are paraded around the south as a "cultural icon." It is just as negative and represents the same principals of hatred as the Che Guevara flag. The problem here is that many of these flag toting Southerners are Bush supporters and it is safe to say that the same confederate flag bumper stickers could easily be easily placed next to a Bush/Cheney 08 bumper sticker.
The point here is that President Bush doesn't get any flak from these Yokels using the unpopular symbols, and neither should Obama. These people represent themselves. If an Atheist goes out and kills ten people, he does not represent the Atheist community at all, yet many will project that image of a "godless murderer" onto Atheists in a heart beat. Nothing could be further from the case. Obama's supporters are missing the point of his campaign, just as the Hillbillies with their flags are missing the point of Bush's campaign. One symbol can support many things, and so can a person. If these renegade Obama supporters were the majority, I could see a concern. But they can brandish whatever flag or symbol they want, but their public display of ignorance (like a Neo-nazi's swastika, or the black panther fist in the air) should reflect on them, not something or someone else they support (like a patriotic German or an admirer of Martin Luther King). That patriotic German is not in accordance with Germany's feelings on WWII by displaying that swastika and the black man who raises his fist in the air promoting black power would be more apt to quote Malcom X in his rants than Martin Luther King Jr.
I'll use myself in an example. Should my "renegade" views on abortion excommunicate me from the catholic church (yes, I am technically a confirmed Catholic)? Probably, but the Pope isn't going to receive any criticism from his supporters or his enemies because of my beliefs. In fact, he has nothing to do with my "deviant beliefs." His own actions, and the majority of his followers' actions, dictate his own consequences.
With so many acknowledged molestation chargers against the Catholic church by bishops, archbishops, cardinals and priests alike, I can't help but question the level to which the pope is involved or had prior knowledge of these abominations. At least Obama's campaign recognized the supporters and responded to it in opposition, something that took the Catholic church thousands of years to do, not two days.
So, I will be voting for Obama in the final election. Not Che Guevara.
-Mike