Posted at On The Wilder Side
From Cynthia McKinney About A Close Encounter of a Different Kind
Hello! I am typing on a Spanish language keyboard and so, I am having to make adjustments. Please pardon me if things are not quite right. However, I am so excited, I hope you won´t mind me sharing with you my experiences as I prepare to participate in an international conference in Havana, Cuba. I am in Cuba Libre.
I was particularly struck by the content of a conversation I had at the Miami airport with a female employee of the United States State Department who works at the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba. I can´t tell you why she came over to me to strike up a conversation. But she did. Here´s how it went:
She: Do you live in Cuba?
Me: No, I do not.
She: I work at the State Department
Me: I oppose the State Department
She: Why?
Me: Because of the policy.
She: It´s a job! I don´t like the policy either.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
My encounter with this State Department employee was, for me, a close encounter of a different kind. Because as I ponder where we are and where we go from here and what my role will be in leading, guiding, and walking with you there, this chance encounter shook me and reminded me how often good people make accommodations that go against their beliefs, against their principles, against their values and then justify those accommodations in ways that are palatable only to themselves (and to others who have made the same accommodation). At that moment, I realized that I had just had a close encounter with someone whose life epitomized exactly what Dr. King was talking about.
How many people in our country go through their daily routine living lives of accommodation and compromise that have, in the Kingian sense, ”ended”? And why do people who should know better choose to live like that?
History is made by those of us who refuse to make the easy accommodations. Movements are built by those with the courage to actually live their convictions. And here I am, in a land where people are proud that they have convictions, where they are proud to have dignity and courage. And speak openly and often about dignidad. What a difference a one hour flight makes!
I will send another message about the conference, but this trip has already taken such an interesting start.
I really do believe that this last election was about people in our country trying to have a little of that dignidad and feeling of Cuba Libre. But given the assassination attempts and the continued occupation of Guantanamo Bay, and the multiple acts of terror sponsored by our government to destabilize this idyllic, yet tough minded island people, it must be clear that dignidad is not something one can get on the cheap.
We must acquire the will to survive and understand that we are in this struggle for the long haul. As the bubbles of U.S. imperialism continue to burst all around us, it is increasingly clear that now is not the time to give up, but instead is the time for us to build. I do believe that we can inform and change the content of U.S. policy. We all must have that confidence. Especially now. And we must also be clear that the policy we want, that reflects our values, won´t come from Chief of Staff Emmanuel, Secretaries Clinton and Gates, or Ambassador Rice.
I want to take this time to thank all of you whom I had the chance of meeting and finding encouragement from for the year and a half that I was on the road. I am taking this time to read all of the kind messages that you´ve sent to me. I´m reviewing all the cd´s and dvd´s that you´ve given to me. I know that you want to go to the next level. All that I´ve seen and read, plus your votes, volunteerism, and financial contributions to the Power to the People campaign are concrete proof of that. From this place, where the sky is so blue and the clouds are fluffy white, I can with assurance tell you that together, we will get there.
Lift the embargo, flood Cuba with American goods, and democracy will come right around. Come on Obama. Change!!! Hope!!! I predict that he will just keep blowing stuff up in the middle-east. Thanks for running Cynthia…
In Cuba they burn copies of Martin Lither King’s biography. Here is some documentation:
The Popular Provincial Court of Santiago de Cuba (Santiago trial number 5, on 4 April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-5e.cfm)
concluded its sentencing of dissident Luis Milan Fernandez to 13 years in prison for “the public and open way in which the defendant expressed his hostility against the Cuban Revolutionary Government†by also ordering that his “documents books, magazines and pamphlets shall be destroyed because of their limited value [por su escaso valor].†Included among the titles specifically mentioned was “the book MartÃn Luther King: Contra todas las exclusiones,†whose content the court condemned as “based on ideas that could be used to promote the social disorder and the civil disobedience.â€
Trial of Felix Navarro Rodriguez and Ivan Hernandez Carrillo, Juan Gualberto Gómez Library (Branch II, Matanzas), in Matanzas, 4 April 2003. Sentence number 2 of 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-2e.cfm.
“… printed material and other that have films and recording will be immediately destroy [sic] by incineration, which it will also be done with the handwritten and typed documents …â€
From the original court record:
“Los materiales impresos y otros que tienen filmaciones y grabaciones serán destruidos mediante su incineración oportuna.â€
These include the following:
81 pamphlet(s) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
un libro con el titulo “MartÃn Luther King”
Forty and two books of injurious Literature
Twenty-two subversive pamphlets
Two books titled “Manual de seguridad e Higiene del trabajo”
60 documents titled “Proyecto Varela”
300 signed questionnaires of the Project Varela
Four books titled, “Normas Internacionales”
Four books titled “La lucha pacÃfica por los derechos humanosâ€
Nine books of religious character.
For a look at Dr. King’s biography, ordered to be burned, go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Martin-Luther-King-Contra-Exclusiones/dp/843301109X/sr=1-1/qid=1169509935/ref=sr_1_1/104-3128821-4267158?ie=UTF8&s=books
I think it’s legitimate to work at a place whose policies you oppose, but only if your goal is to use your position to change those policies. An example would be Ron Paul working in Congress, or a professor teaching libertarian ideas at a public college.
May you and your family rot in fidel’s gulag as my brothers did in La Cabana for thirteen years simply for opposing the communist regime which has poisoned our homeland.
John: I agree with the quote too. It would still be true if Mussolini said it, and no I am not equating King and Mussolini.
It’s a good standard to set, and an impossible one to fully live up to.
Regardless of the economic beliefs of MLK and the policies of Cuba, I agree with the quote.
And I agree with the idea that one who opposes a policy should not work for it- If I oppose the State Dept I will not choose to work there.
This is why as a libertarian, I oppose the state, and choose not to vote or be employed or otherwise support state violence.
Malcolm X, on the other hand…
Dr. ing is all hype. He was a back alley socialist
Paulie @ 11:
I only mentioned that because I figured *somebody* (not necessarily you) would attempt to negate everything Dr. King did simply because of his socialist views. I know people who have argued that since King was socialist, he therefore was a thoroughly bad person in all aspects of his personality.
I oppose statism in all forms, but I also recognize that not all people who embrace statist economic viewpoints are child-eating monsters. Some are genuinely nice and helpful human beings…They just happen to be mislead.
I’m sadly not as educated about Malcolm X. King was a consistent and genuine “good guy”, though, and I like good guys.
For the record, I am a bigger fan of Malcolm X.
As am I.
King’s economic view were indeed socialist, but that doesn’t negate the good he did.
I didn’t in any way imply it it does. The question was raised what his views were; I answered it to the best of my knowledge.
King’s economic view were indeed socialist, but that doesn’t negate the good he did.
For the record, I am a bigger fan of Malcolm X.
Well, if I’d had some time to speak to him he would have come around on the socialism bit. The free market is, after all, all about equality. 😉
Socialism grants greater fiat authority to the oppressive state.
It appears that the US government prohibition on travel to Cuba has been lifted. After all Michael Moore went there and as best I can tell he was only investigated for his supposedly prohibited traveling.
To my knowledge, no. Americans have always been able to find ways to visit Cuba, and as far as I know the US regime still does not make it easy. I was there briefly in the 1980s, but I can’t go into details.
King’s economic views were socialist.
I don’t know anything about Martin Luther King’s politics, but based on speeches and quotes I’ve seen, it seems like he may in fact have been very libertarian-leaning. I definitely feel like there’s a lot I agree with him about, and he seemed like an awesome guy. I had the opportunity to meet Coretta, his wife, at one point, and it was a very cool experience.
Dr. King was absolutely free of all racism, which is something that wasn’t true of so many people on both sides. He believed in the sort of true equality that is in fact the only thing that will set us free from the bonds of utter foolishness.
It appears that the US government prohibition on travel to Cuba has been lifted. After all Michael Moore went there and as best I can tell he was only investigated for his supposedly prohibited traveling.
To describe Cuba under its current government as “free” is simply obscene. The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend.
Because as I ponder where we are and where we go from here and what my role will be in leading, guiding, and walking with you there, this chance encounter shook me and reminded me how often good people make accommodations that go against their beliefs, against their principles, against their values and then justify those accommodations in ways that are palatable only to themselves (and to others who have made the same accommodation).
Feeling oh so smug…then I remember that I voted for Barr.
Pacem en Terris
Steve
A very insightful quote by Dr. King. I agree with it.