Reply #5: at the time that jeb bush appointed raul cantero to the fla. supreme court

[flordehinojos]

i wrote an opinion piece which i sent to the Tallahassee Democrat.

In the piece that i submitted, i made the point that raul cantero's nomination to the florida supreme court, being that he was the grandson of the most murderous dictator cuba had had, was a slap in the face of the many cubans whose relatives, friends, and family members had been assassinated by the batista forces during the most brutal dictatorship cuba had known, beginning with the assassination of frank país in l957, a student leader who opposed the batista regime, and ending on december 31, l958 with the assassination of Nacho Marti, another young student who opposed the Batista regime, whose family expected his return to his home town after the fall of Batista on January 1, l959, only to find out that he had been assassinated hours earlier by the batista forces on some road out in the Pinar del Rio province.

i also added that had it not been for the murderous fulgencio batista y zaldívar's dictatorship, fidel castro would never have happened--since he, fidel castro and his revolution, only happened and took force as a response, a looking for a way out of the batista dictatorship .

the co-editor at the Tallahassee Democrat who received my piece, stated that he could not publish it, because he had known other cubans who had told him just how murderous fulgencio batista's regime had been--thus, my opinion piece was telling him nothing that he did not already know.

and, he added, that he could not publish it because his own grandfather had been someone who had run into trouble with the law, and that he, the editor, had never been judged on the actions of his grandfather, and he, the editor, was not about to judge raul cantero on the actions of his own grandfather.

and as i write this today, i am saying to myself, "running in trouble with the law" and being a cold blooded murderer who kills hundreds of people -- perhaps thousands of people-- so he can stay in POWER -- is not on the same level in the scale of things as just running in trouble with the law.

Secondly, giving POWER to the grandson of a man who committed so many crimes against the Cuban people, is also, not the same as not being judged by the actions of a grandfather who might have ended up in some county jail for who knows what reason. and nominating the grandson of a murderous dictator to the florida supreme court, is a slap in the face of so many cubans who had to flee cuba back then because of batista's brutal repression against them, and a slap in the face of those families who'd wake up on any morning in that tropical island to find out that their father, mother, brother, sister, husband, son, daughter, uncle, aunt, friend, or neighbor had been assassinated by the batista forces.

Yes... there were and are many cubans who opposed batista and his brutal regime--even when, shockingly, it is the right wing batistianos who have managed to seat themselves in our house of representatives, i.e, ileana ros-lehtinen, mario diaz-balart and lincoln diaz-balart...rabid right wingers and batista supporters all or descendants or rabid batista supporters.

and now ... raul cantero will have to pay back to bush what he has received received from bush:power and elevation... unless he has really learned what democracy is about, unless he has become a balanced man who will not misuse the power he has been given and who can use his thinking to rule in favor of the law and not in favor of the powerful ... unless--but in this bush infested world, i really have no faith anymore.