Comment removed by admin because I dont like wading through shit.

Val

Gadfly, I am sorry you feel this way, this election I will make sure I will vote democrat, actually I will vote for Jimmy or Clinton because they are so strong and love this country so much.
sory again that I voted for Bush or el diablo.

PS Comunista de mierda

and by they I was Lincon a Republican the one that abolished slavery, you can ask the your klansman (Bird) he will tell you how much he likes colored people

Gadfly,

What a blessing it is to be able to exercise our freedom of speech. As you can see, your comments have been posted for everyone to read. However, I must tell you that I have heard these statements over and over ... they are part of the "mantra".

You mentioned word usage and confusion in your comments, and yet your comments are easily perceived as condescending. Hatred and disdain permeate all over your words.

After reading your comments, I believe your own words may be applicable to your position.

~ "You would never question the party line would you? You wouldn’t want to engage in any real independent thinking would you? That would take too much time and energy. That would take real courage. It’s much easier for you just to regurgitate what you’ve heard over and over again, and what you’ve been told to think. It’s guys like you that make the perfect lackeys for the Hitlers and Castros of the world." ~ Gadfly

Respectfully,
Melek

"When a subject is highly controversial... One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can only give one's audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker." ~ V.Woolf

Gadfly,

It's because of people like you that I will gladly vote REPUBLICAN.

I had never heard of the book " A Girl Like...x*&#x" . If there's anyone out there who read it, please briefly let me know what you thought of it. Thanks.

HA! You are too late, "Gadfly." I already voted. And let me tell you, the Democrats had me so pissed off I didn't vote for a dadblamed ONE of them! GOP, third party, Libertarian, sure---but not a single Democrat!

I saw the original comment. If nothing else, it was utterly off-topic, so much so that it was an act of disrespect for what this post is about.

Children, for obvious reasons, are extremely vulnerable and susceptible to this kind of obscene manipulation. That's why they're such tempting targets for a totalitarian system. The school system in Cuba is about indoctrination first and everything else second. It's about creating brainwashed, servile, unquestioning sheep. The fact that it's "free" only refers to money, because there's definitely a very high price to pay otherwise.

My mother was a schoolteacher in Cuba. When she realized that she would be required to teach children things she knew were both false and wrong, she resigned. She also realized her own children would be subjected to indoctrination, and she was determined not to let that happen. Thank God she and my father managed to get us out in time.

If anyone safely living in a free society uses the "free education" business as a way to credit or justify a Stalinist regime like Cuba's, that person is at best completely ignorant of the reality of the situation. A mind is a terrible thing to deceive, twist, confuse, manipulate, and yes, waste.

I'm so sick of the bogus "free" arguments.

Nothing is ever "free" someone always has to pay.

In Cuba they not only pay with everything material that is or has been stolen by the government...but they also pay with their children's minds and sometimes their souls.

Of all the destruction that communism has caused in Cuba, the worst has to be the attempted confiscation of people's minds.

I have a comment, a personal anecdote and a question.

We all know someone who as a small child in school in Cuba, or as a teacher, experienced the following indoctrination technique: "close your eyes and ask God for candy. Now open your eyes. See, no candy. So there is no God. Now, close your eyes and ask fidel for candy. See fidel gives your candy." This is within the personal experience of so many people, that I have to believe it was a standard instructional approach. Although, I don't recall ever experiencing this.

What I did experience follows: It was 1969, and I was in the third grade in Cuba. My parents were in the midst of the lengthy process of leaving Cuba via the "Freedom Flights." My third grade teacher found out about it through whatever mechanism such things are made known. She asked me to stand in front of the class one day, and told the other third graders that I was a traitor to the country, I was "renunciando a la Patria, y era un Gusano." (yes, I still remember the very words). She then encouraged the other children to show their distaste for my "kind." With much encouragement from the teacher, the children taunted me, yelled revolutionary slogans and threw paper, pencils and other objects at me as I stood shaking and petrified in front of the class.

I don't know how long I stood there, but after some period of time I ran from the room crying. Somehow my parents managed to have me transfered to the classroom of a teacher they had known for many years. Several months later we left the country.

I know that my treatment at the hands of this teacher is insignificant compared to what many others have faced. But, I have always wondered whether other children who left during the late 60's and early 70's on the Freedom Flights faced the same treatment. In other words, was this "acto de repudio" directed at a young child a routine practice back then, or was it an aberration orchestrated by a particularly hateful teacher? Its just something I've always wondered about.

LG;

The thing happened to me. It was 1966 or 67 and I was in kindergarten.