Florida's Cuban right wing expatriots have struck again. They have successfully lobbied the Treasury Department to ban Cuba from participating in the upcomming world baseball tournament. This nation's policies toward Cuba are preposterously indefensible.
O.K.,Castro tweaked our nose almost 50 years ago when he drove out Fulgencio Batista, another Latin puppet dictator for whom this country seems to have an insatiable appetite. Thousands fled the country and streamed into South Florida in the late 50's and early 60's. Most of the refugees were the white upper classes who could no longer rely on the fallen dictator. These people and their children have a great hatred for Castro as a result of the revolution. They appear to wield an inordinate degree of influence, not only in Floridian politics, but more troubling, on the national stage as well. Oh, those horrible Cuban communists!! How can we allow a communist country to share in our wealth by sending a baseball team to participate in a world class event? AMERICA'S HYPOCRISY IS BREATHTAKING!!
Cuban society is impoverished and it is not all Castro's fault. They have a high level of literacy. Health care is readily available to all.Their baseball team is one of the best in the world. We reject them because they are a communist country...hello! What is China, Camelot? No, they are a brutal,repressive communist society with whom we have struck a deal to enrich the coffers of a few American businessmen.They pose a growing political and military threat and we are up to our wontons in debt to them. Oh, those damned communists!! Apparently some communists are more equal than others. Strange bedfellows, indeed. Obviously communism isn't all that bad when a fat profit can be turned.
LET THE CUBANS PLAY!! Cuban expatriots should not have the loudest voice in the inevitable dialogue with Cuba. You realize that if Cuba had oil Dubya would have extended his righteous arm of democratic reform to the oppressed people of Cuba. Their plight is sadly off Washington's radar screen as are all other dictatorial states which do not offer the United States anything exploitable. Ribet...ribet

So this is a Christian country. Really? When polled, 95%+ claimed they were followers of Jesus, the Christ. I seriously doubt this assertion. I see no evidence that the core precepts espoused by your lord are functional in American society. The loudest and most strident Christian voices are those of the fundamentalist cults whose mantras are far more Judaic than Christian.
Where are the Christian voices pleading compassion for the poor, the homeless, the down-trodden in society? Are you pure of heart? How committed to peace are you? Unfortunately, you are far too meek to inherit anything but the dirt. Do Falwell, Robertson and Dobson speak for you? If they do, you are no Christian. Your Christ preached love; these villains spread hatred with every public utterance. Your Christ embraced all; these scoundrels splinter, marginalize. and villify those who do not march in lock step with their Talibanistic creeds.
Jesus was certainly a Liberal, a great spirit and a force for healing and growth.These fundamentalist nabobs would lead you to abandon all concern for the very people for which your Jesus was killed.You Methodists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Congregationalists, Lutherans,Episcopalians, some Baptists, and a host of other protestant sects too numerous to mention, where are your voices? Who speaks for you? We know the history of the Catholic church and are aware that it bends and molds its policies with the prevailing political winds. The Catholic church is and will remain a white, male dominated religion which,unfortunately, shares much in common with these funadamentalist Sadducees.
I don't hear the voice of your lord anywhere in the public forum. If you don't speak out that voice will never be heard. It's not good enough to praise on Sunday and fall silent Monday through Saturday. I don't believe for a second that this is a Christian nation and if you consider it dispassionately, you don't believe it either.
Rather than placing the ten commandments on our public buildings we should adorn them with the Bill of Rights and the Beatitudes, for these documents speak to freedom and love in such a manner as to be all inclusive, not sectarian and divisive which appears to be the predominant "christian" voice in America today. Ribet...ribet