December 03, 2006
No Justice for fidel
Bonnie Anderson, ex-reporter for NBC and CNN, has something in common with many of you reading this post right now. She's a Cuban-American. Her father, Howard F. Anderson, was one the tens of thousands tortured and executed by fidel when she was only five.
Because of this, Ms. Anderson, like many of us, has a bone to pick with the ruthless dictator in Cuba. In a feature column in today's Miami Herald (sorry folks), she describes the painful feeling of loss her and her family have had to endure as a result of her father's execution by fidel's firing squads. Ms. Anderson also takes the MSM, and even the general American public, to task for the relative lack of compassion shown towards Cuban-Americans and our cause.
What I fail to understand is why there seems to be little national compassion for the pain that Cuban exiles have experienced. Americans show compassion for cancer survivors, for DUI and rape victims, for people suffering from depression, physical and mental abuse. We show compassion for famine victims in Africa; as an NBC news correspondent, I broke stories about genocide in Ethiopia, and the world -- but especially the United States -- responded with millions of dollars of money, but most important, with compassion.Organizations have sprung up to defend and champion the victims of all these issues, and rightly so. There is public acceptance that these people have suffered and have been wronged. It is morally right.
So why, I ask, are Cuban exiles not afforded the same support and compassion? I was a CNN network executive when the Elián González issue was a major story. I was horrified by the coverage by my network and all others. It pained me deeply to see sound-bites by people who said about the Cuban-Americans in this country, ''Why don't they just get over it? It happened so long ago.'' I spoke up to my superiors at CNN. And I'm no longer there.
Please take the time to read the entire column below the fold. It should be required reading for everyone, especially those who wonder why Cuban-Americans are always up in arms over fidel and the rest of his hoodlums in Cuba. Perhaps it will shed a little light to the skeptics out there.
Fidel Castro Has Yet To Face Justice
BY BONNIE ANDERSON
It is deeply wrenching to witness a week of lavish celebrations honoring Fidel Castro's birth when most likely every day, somewhere in the world, anguished families quietly mourn the death of a loved one at the hands of this heartless, evil man.
That Fidel, himself, may be dying is not much comfort to me. I believe in justice and while he will be judged by God when he dies, he has yet to be judged on Earth for his crimes against humanity.
My father, Howard F. Anderson, was only one of 20,000 people tortured and executed by Fidel Castro. Before my Dad's execution by firing squad, he had most of his blood drained from his body to be used for transfusions for the revolutionary troops. Other political prisoners who watched the execution from their cells told me years later that my father refused a blindfold. And he whistled as the bullets tore into his body. One of the few memories I have, since I was only 5 years old at the time, was that my Dad whistled when he was angry.
With the ''ready, aim, fire'' order, I, too, was wounded forever more. This ruthless dictator robbed me of a lifetime with my father, a lifetime of fatherly advice, a lifetime of memories.
So no, I don't want to see him die this way, of natural causes, or at this time. I have always hoped the world would recognize him for what he is and that Fidel Castro would be judged, convicted and sentenced for his crimes against humanity in an international court of law.
A death from old age is far, far too lenient a punishment for a man who has killed so many people, destroyed the lives of literally millions. As a journalist, I refrain from generalities. But I do believe there are few Cubans on the island and even fewer Cuban exiles who have not had a family member either executed or imprisoned by this megalomaniac.
What I fail to understand is why there seems to be little national compassion for the pain that Cuban exiles have experienced. Americans show compassion for cancer survivors, for DUI and rape victims, for people suffering from depression, physical and mental abuse. We show compassion for famine victims in Africa; as an NBC news correspondent, I broke stories about genocide in Ethiopia, and the world -- but especially the United States -- responded with millions of dollars of money, but most important, with compassion.
Organizations have sprung up to defend and champion the victims of all these issues, and rightly so. There is public acceptance that these people have suffered and have been wronged. It is morally right.
So why, I ask, are Cuban exiles not afforded the same support and compassion? I was a CNN network executive when the Elián González issue was a major story. I was horrified by the coverage by my network and all others. It pained me deeply to see sound-bites by people who said about the Cuban-Americans in this country, ''Why don't they just get over it? It happened so long ago.'' I spoke up to my superiors at CNN. And I'm no longer there.
What I told them was this: Would anyone dare tell a Holocaust survivor, or the sons, daughters and grandchildren of the Holocaust to ''just forget about it'' because it happened so long ago? Of course not. Castro did not kill as many as Hitler did, and I would never diminish the horror and huge dimensions of the Holocaust, but Castro was -- and is -- our Hitler in Latin America.
BORN IN CUBA
Despite my Anglo name, I was born in Cuba. My mother was born there. Her parents are buried there. My father was buried there until Castro was so ticked off by an article I wrote in 1978 as a Miami Herald reporter that he had my father's remains dug up and thrown out.
I am most proud of being Cuban American. And I want the rest of the world to understand our pain. It is part of our daily lives, no matter where we live. It is the ache of losing a country, but it is more than that, too. It is a loss we feel in our blood and in our bones. It is also clearly an emotional demise in many ways -- a void in our pasts which continues to the present and will continue through the future. You can't make up for years of lost family experiences -- normal, human experiences that most other people enjoy. These are memories that have been stolen for all time.
For myself, I have only two memories of my father and what saddens me is that I can't be absolutely certain that they truly are recollections or whether I've simply grasped onto scenes from the few home movies we managed to smuggle out of Cuba and morphed them into memories. When I think of this, it provokes a deep, dark cutting sadness in me.
Cuban exiles can't expect others who have not experienced what we have to actually know our pain and understand our passion for wanting to address the wrongs done us. Rape victims can't expect that. Neither can the parents of children who have been killed by drunk drivers, or family members who have lost loved ones in the current Iraq conflict. Or family members of the victims of Columbine, or 9/11. The people who survived the genocide in Ethiopia and in so many other places can't expect anyone to truly know their pain.
Our pain is part of our spirit. The most we can hope for is compassion.
The day that Castro's illness was first reported, I woke up very early and was watching CBS. On their early morning shows, they repeatedly said that ''Castro is considered a ruthless dictator by some in Miami.'' I fired off an e-mail to CBS President Sean McManus. What I wrote, in short, was this: If a man who murdered 20,000 people, imprisoned for decades hundreds of thousands of others, caused countless hundreds of thousands to flee the country (many losing their lives in desperate attempts to reach freedom on flimsy rafts) and has repressed a nation for nearly five decades -- denying them the most basic of human rights -- is not considered a ruthless dictator by all, who the hell is?
I haven't heard back from him. I don't expect I will. In fact, I suspect he, and other network executives, will continue to cozy up to the Cuban government (whoever leads it) in order to make sure that when Castro dies, their networks have access to the coverage. That's the way it is in the corporate news world.
But I have faith in my fellow American citizens. And I know, in my heart and spirit, that when the truth is known, those of us who have suffered at the hands of Fidel Castro will finally receive the compassion we are due.
IN MOURNING
While Fidel is celebrating a birthday, my brothers, sister and I are mourning the death not only of our father but also of our mother, Dorothy Stauber Anderson McCarthy, who died less than two months ago. She was 39 years old when Fidel made her a widow. She struggled to raise us and give us a new life, and she was most successful. But her greatest triumph was to instill a sense of right and honor in us, to teach us strength and morality.
A month after her death, a New York judge ruled that we should receive millions of dollars of the frozen Cuban assets held in this country because of Fidel Castro's murder of my father. It is a very welcome decision but very bittersweet. Fidel Castro is alive and he knows he has been tried, convicted and sentenced to pay for his heinous act. But the fact that my mother isn't alive to see this final measure of justice is a soul-deep wound that I will live with for the rest of my life.
I weep for her. I weep for us, and I weep for all who have been the victims of Fidel Castro.
Happy Birthday? Please.
Bonnie M. Anderson is a 27-year veteran of print, radio, Internet and television journalism in English and in Spanish. She has worked on camera for local, national and international news organizations, including two decades with NBC News and CNN. Anderson won seven Emmy Awards, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and has been nominated for the María Coors Cabot Lifetime Achievement Award, which is sponsored by Columbia University. Capt. Anderson is now following a family tradition and is running a charter fishing operation out of Culebra, Puerto Rico.
Posted by Robert M at December 3, 2006 09:36 AM
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Comments
Americans have two problems in dealing with Cuba. First, the actually believe Cuba was a third world banana republic in 1958.
Second, they love the romantic image of fidel as a swashbuckling caballero who swept down from the mountains and defeated a corrupt dictator with his good intentions.
I blame Zorro. From 1957 through 1961 or so, corresponding with the rise of fidel, Zorro appeared on American television. Guy Williams starred as a debonair, exotic Hispanic who fought a corrupt government. He wore a mask and a mustache - not that different from fidel's beard. Americans were set up to see fidel, and Cuba, in the same way.
Add to that the general lack of education in the US and we have star-struck ignorance.
Posted by: Paxety ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 3, 2006 11:09 AM
This article should be on the front page of every newspaper in the country and required reading in our schools, just like Holocaust education. That it is not diminishes us all.
Posted by: Ziva at December 3, 2006 12:18 PM
I think it's right to be concerned about all people, but considering Cuba is in our back yard, it would make sense to pay a little closer attention to them. Now, there are three possible reasons for MSM's neglect of Cuba or its outright sympathy for the government of Cuba. The first is that they don't think it's a huge problem. The second would be if they felt it was uninteresting. The third would be if they agree with the government. The first is false. The second would mean they're shallow. I think in most cases it's the third. The thought of rooting for the U.S. (or against one of its enemies which is the same thing) is difficult for many on the left who happen to be cynical of U.S. power if not outright anti-American.
Posted by: nguirado at December 3, 2006 02:24 PM
Why should anybody from....say....Wyoming give a moment's thought to Fidel's atrocities in Cuba? Yes, Cuba is near Florida so I can understand Miami's geographical concern but the rest of the US? During the Elian debacle, I talked to people around the country and the Miami Gonzalez family and all of the nut job supporters came off as THC [typical hysterical Cubans]. They should have given that boy back to his father immediately. My opinion is that 99.99% of Americans don't care about the entire Fidel/Cuba situation is because the Miami Cubans were perceived as cowards, running to the safety of the United States as opposed to staying in Havana and fighting Fidel. Really, outside of south Florida no one gives a crap...but all you old Miami Cubans are so blinded by your long simmering hatred that you can't understand that we Americans don't give a shit, just like we don't give two shits about Darfur.
Posted by: knaublach at December 3, 2006 02:53 PM
Hey Knaublach:
I didn't realize you had taken a poll of non-Floridian, non-Cubans in the US. I'm one of them (I apparently missed the poll) and here in non-Cuban Pennsylvania I can tell you that during the Elian crisis there were plenty of people here who gave, as you so eloquently put it, 'a shit' about the situation. It's called HUMANITY. That situation was not an easy one and it the way it played out was criminal. Can you really blame the Gonzalez family for being emotional? I guess you can compare the Miami Cubans' "long-simmering hatred" to that of the Democrats who hate Bush so much because they still have not gotten over the 2000 election. Al Gore? Howard Dean? Now who's hysterical?
Claudia
Posted by: Claudia at December 3, 2006 03:09 PM
Hey Knaublach:
IDIOTS LIKE YOU, THAT ARE SO MYOPIC THAT YOU ARE ONLY CONCERNED WITH THINGS THAT IMMEDIATELY AFFECT YOU, GIVE ALL AMERICANS A BAD NAME. THANK GOD YOU ARE NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF MOST AMERICANS.....
Posted by: Tony V at December 3, 2006 06:39 PM
Wow. In 1958 for first grade I had a Zorro lunch can. I did not realize that I was unwittingly spreading Castro and Communist propoganda!!
And to the comment from Knablauch, I am a non-Cuban living in Delaware. I very much care about what happens in Cuba and how by the time I was in the fifth grade in nearby suburban Philadelphia, we listened to JFK's speech about missles in Cuba.
I cared very much when I saw fighter jets parked at the Philadelphia International Airport. I cared very much when we practiced "duck and cover".
In 1987 I had a grad school professor in Management from India who gave us as a project a study of the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missle Crisis as a failure and "success" by the same management team. I disagreed with her and we were all good old MBA student capitalists.
If you care at all about freedom and justice, you need to care about the fate of Cuba, no matter where you're from or what side of the political spectrum you're from.
Posted by: JackW at December 3, 2006 08:18 PM
So then you would be one who don't think it's important although I suspect you sympathize with the Cuban government as well or, at least, think the U.S. is a mostly bad country. When I said people didn't think it was important what I meant was that people didn't understand the extent of the problem in Cuba. However, you're right in pointing out that we would go nuts if we worried about everyplace with corrupt, murderous disctatorships.
Posted by: nguirado at December 4, 2006 12:09 AM
"Why should anybody from....say....Wyoming give a moment's thought to Fidel's atrocities in Cuba?"
It's not all about geography. The state of Wyoming, with agriculture as one of its driving economic forces, and the possibilities of trading with castro ... should generate some interest in "learning" about Cuba and castro's oppresive regime in itself.
As to Elian's case ... once again ... one of the protagonists and victim in the Elian saga is totally ignored. Elian's mother died! She drowned trying to bring her child to freedom ... what a sacrifice! I guess her will did not count since "her voice" was no longer ... This may account for the passionate and emotional plight from the relatives in Miami ...! Oh! Apathy ... thanks God there are many who do care...!
I care!Selfish, indefferent, intolerant and ignorant people motivate me to make a difference as a person in this world!
I wish you well :) Melek
"When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths." ~ .
Posted by: Melek at December 4, 2006 11:37 AM
I think that one of the main reasons Cuban-Americans are not on the social conciesness is the fact that they work their asses off. You don't hear them talk of or in a perpetual state of victimhood. Speaking as a Arkansan ,of all the ethnic groups who came to this great land the Cubans are the ones who have made me the proudest because they choose to come here.The have brought a lovely culture of music and culinary traditions as well as a high moral standard of family values and a great work ethic.In fact for the U.S. one of the most bittersweet moments will come when(Not IF) Cuba is finally a free nation governed by the will of her people. The joy of a homeland won back after decades of loss will be celebrated but the loss of so many ( i know not all will leave but alot will)fine Americans as they move back to their homes and families in Cuba will be a sad, sad day for America. Whether the media cares or not I for one will stand with my fellow Americans in Miami and cheer the day that the bearded bastard goes to hell.
Posted by: cracker at December 4, 2006 01:01 PM
"Why should anybody from....say....Wyoming give a moment's thought to Fidel's atrocities in Cuba?"
Because I'm Irish and Polish. And in their worst days nobody came to help. Nobody gave a shit. And people died. And maybe if somebody had given a shit they wouldn't have.
That's why I give it a moment's thought, and more. Because evil triumphs when good men do nothing. And those good men are just as much at fault for standing around. And then it becomes a question of honor.
Posted by: Spade at December 4, 2006 03:44 PM
Unbeleivable. I grew up in Miami, and was young, but old enough to be aware, when Castro betrayed the Cuban people, and when Kennedy hung the true freedom fighters out to dry. I've lived in other parts of the US for many years.
Never, ever have I heard, or seen in print, until now, the words "Cuban" and "coward" in the same sentence. It is disgusting.
People in the US may not be very aware of the situation but I've yet to hear such nonsense. That makes me furious. I met and spoke with many who barely made it out alive, and who fought.
Information was suppressed so that Kennedy and others would not be shown for the treacherous bastards they were.
People are clueless about Che, Fidel, and how they sold out the country and murdered good people.
I knew of instances in which exiles tried to organize to take their country back and our government prevented it.
Because the Cubans in this country have worked hard and thrived, instead of just lay down, the idiots like knaublach have no compassion or respect. They are moronic idiots who can't face the truth of their glamorized version of communist dictatorships.
I am anglo with ancestry back to prerevolution days in this country. I am grateful that Cubans in America have not just let it go, that they have never given up hope in their hearts.
That comment makes me more angry than the ones by some Hollywood idiots who have gushed over fidel and his bloody reign of terror.
I would stake all I have if there was an effort underway to go take it back. On a moments notice I would go.
Posted by: harpofly at December 6, 2006 05:36 PM
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