HOPE for America

This appeared on the Editorial Page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch July 7, 2008 . If you think it is appropriate for the times, pass it on.

Editor Times-Dispatch

"Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day and on July 4 I celebrate America 's. This year is special because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence.

On June 30, 1968 , I escaped Communist Cuba and a few months later I was in the United States to stay. That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress.

I've thought a lot about the anniversary this year. The election-year rhetoric has made me think a lot about Cuba and what transpired there. In the late 1950's, most Cubans thought Cuba needed a change, and they were right. So when a young leader came along, every Cuban was at least receptive.

When the young leader spoke eloquently and passionately and denounced the old system, the press fell in love with him. They never questioned who his friends were or what he really believed in. When he said he would help the farmers and the poor and bring free medical care and education to all, everyone followed. When he said he would bring justice and equality to all, everyone said "Praise the Lord". And when the young leader said, "I wil be for change and I'll bring you change, everyone yelled, "Viva Fidel!"

But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the executioner' s guns went silent the people's guns had been taken away. By the time everyone was equal, they were equally poor, hungry, and oppressed. By the time everyone received their free education it was worth nothing. By the time the press noticed, it was too late, because they were now working for him. By the time the change was finally implemented Cuba had been knocked down a couple of notches to Third World status. By the time the change was over more than a million people had taken to boats, rafts, and inner tubes. You can call those who made it ashore anywhere else in the world most fortunate Cubans. And now I'm back to the beginning of my story.

Luckily, we would never fall in America for a left leaning young leader who promised change without asking, what change? How will you carry it out? What will it cost America ?
Would we?
Manuel Alvarez, Jr.
Sandy Hook , VA


Response:

Interesting isn't it? I bet you are not, but I am old enough I can remember when he came to the US in the 50's amid much great HOPE and everyone gave him money and even horses, including the King Ranch, for the revolution. Batiste [sp?] was pretty bad, he had assumed dictatorial powers, tortured the people and taken their property etc. while the US government backed him.

Today we face a tyrant who has tortured, kidnapped without cause or legality, violated our laws with arrogant impunity, stolen our property, imprisoned us for crimes committed by others, doubled our national debt, fought to preserve whole industries for his friends like the big oil companies monopoly dominating gasoline and oil and the big utilities monopoly dominating power generation, etc. etc.

Western hemisphere leaders including Hugo Chavez are asking Russia for a treaty to protect Venezuela from US while the New England governments are finally broke down and forced to accept his low cost Citgo heating oil for the poor and elderly after keeping it from them several years so they were forced to buy at high prices from big oil.

We are left with a near economic collapse, high joblessness, breaking health care and a non functioning education system with the lowest standard in the industrialized world, near defunct military who misappropriates $1 out of every $3 it is given ($130 billion / year per the GAO), a "war on terror" that will never end along with his assumed dictatorial war powers, lied to us so he could go to war and murder over 4100+ of our side even though 30% are foreign nationals seeking citizenship, countless innocent civilians and little children, even placing himself above the law and scrapping our Constitution and so on. He has even doubled our national debt and now borrows from our most serious adversary, Communist China, who he shows great friendship by giving them most of our jobs and special governmental preferences, even allowing them to operate one of our ports and guard it with their own troops on our sacred soil and ignores their human rights violations.

So along comes HOPE and a bright spot to look forward to. It is an old man at 80 and a vicious corporate raider but who seems to have mellowed somewhat. He speaks the truth and tells us we cannot go on importing $700 billion worth of imported oil which is making windfall profits for the protected big oil and utility monopolities. He wants the government to mandate their future fleet cars be able to burn natural gas and build wind towers and solar power. The natural gas we save from using wind/solar electricity can run our cars. And generate thousands of green jobs to jump start our economy. This would force GM to start making some of the 18 car models they make overseas that run on natural gas here in the US. Finally a plan that can work. Wait, wind and solar power, isn't that what another young man has suggested as a solution also?

But we have an alternative. He is a decorated war hero, man of integrity (well except for the Keating 5), who promises to keep us in a "war on terror" until we win even if it takes 100 years. Admits he knows little about economics. In fact his main ex-economic adviser said we were a nation of whiners and this was only a "mental recession." Unfortunately our hero has no understanding of our situation (national debt crisis and imported oil crisis) and thinks the "war on terror" is all there is to America and her future. He does not understand the energy problem much less a solution - leave it to big oil and the utilities who got us here.

Nor did he understand the "war" in which he was a hero in. While America revolutionized, he lay in a POW camp oblivious to what was going on and now thinks if we had stayed the course we would have "won." It is like our opposing General Giap said when our General told him we won every battle we fought, but "none were of consequence" (you lost!). Plus our period Secretary of Defense wrote a book and said our Hero's war was a mistake and they just made up the reasons to justify it, 65,000+ American mistakes.

And the 80 year old man of HOPE told the Congressional Committee, if you don't solve this imported oil problem, there is no need to worry about the education or health care problems as you will not have any money to solve them anyway!

This will be a very interesting election to watch and probably the most important we will have in our life time. Who knows, we may finally figure out what is important to our survival and what is "of no consequence." Today the only color that matters is red, white and blue. God bless America!