This is the inner flap of my Cuban passport from 1961; the yellowed card stapled to the cover with my photo is the autorization to leave.Today marks the 48th anniversary of my arrival in Miami in the company of my two sisters... My older sister Bea tells me that she had a presentiment as we were departing that it was to be forever... but I think none of us ever thought the Castro regime would last this long.
That there are still human beings on this planet who support Castro and believe he has done "some good things" for "his people" is beyond my ability to fathom. I understand it's the power of lies and propaganda; Castro has always had a close ally in Satan, the Father of Lies.
It seems to me that Evil is on the rise in the world at this moment, and in Latin America in particular, with the Castro-Chavez hard-left axis of evil sweeping across the continent. I worry about what is happening to our freedom here in America too. It's probably not uncommon for a person my age to have so many worries and feel pessimistic about the future, but these times seem darker to me than any I've ever seen before. May the Almighty protect us; Lord knows our leaders aren't!
3 comments:
Amazing to think it has been that long. And I agree about the darkening atmosphere. Of course it would be hard to pick any time in history when things weren't being threatened. Certainly the last couple of centuries have been notable for the threats to civilization as we know it--all the build-up to WWI, the horrid aftermath with the Great Depression and the rise of Nazism and Fascism and Japanese imperialism, then the spread of Communism worldwide. All pretty ominous. Yet things weren't so great even before that--think of slavery and the horrors of the Civil War in the 19th century, or the terrible price of settling the Americas by exterminating the indigenous peoples either by disease or open slaughter while slavery flourished in the Caribbean and the colonies in the 18th century, or the Inquisition and the religious wars of the 16-17th centuries, or the Black Death and 100 Years War in the 15th century, and on and on the further back you go. There was a program on the History channel tonight about the American Revolution, and I walked in just when they were quoting from Thomas Paine's "American Crisis" where he says, "What we obtain too cheap, we hold too lightly. It is dearness only, that gives everything its value." Perhaps each generation must face the threat of its age in order to appreciate those basic values. I just hope the struggle in my kids and grandkids time won't be too bloody or too futile. There may be dark times ahead, but then that was foretold long ago. "In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have overcome the world"--that was the "good news" accompanying the very bad news of the Crucifixion. Passover and Easter week is the ideal time to remember that things may not turn out the way they seem, and even when they look very bad indeed, other forces are at work. Of course things go better if we cooperate with them instead of selling out to the enemy.....
An excellent comment--thank you for it and the reminder that yes indeed, the human project has ever been endangered and the struggle between good and evil a constant in human history. The Easter season is a good time to ponder it all, and our own role in the struggle.
Elena, I live in CT and find myself surrounded by people that think things like what happened to Cuba can't happen here. I am a cuban invetero. My mother and father came here 49 years ago in 1960 to escape what looked like to them a death and funeral of cuban culture. I now anxiously, like many cubans, await the change on the island. I think that evil is always here and everywhere. It is a human condition but good is 10 times stronger and those of us who generate it through are works and who speak our truths honestly and forthrightly will overcome the castro brothers, chavez, amindinajad and the naivete of our current adminstration. We always have a choice that is why free will. We can always choose love light and good at any moment
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