The Utility of an Idiot or Two or Three

by

When the fulfillment of multi-cultural interest and exposure is limited by the arbitrary acts of any government; when the dialogue and interaction between artists of one country and any other is banned, we begin to humiliate our own humanity. It has been said that the poets are the unacknowledged legislators of any given era. Let’s let those poets in the United States and Cuba interact.
Sean Penn
(Sean, boyo, does that mean you’re willing to forgo the photo-ops?)
President Clinton helped us bring Buena Vista Social Club out to the world. President Bush helps his gangster buddies in Miami make more money. You be the judge!
Ry Cooder
(Yes, I drank the Kool-Aid when I was in Havana.)
As a basic democratic tenet Americans should support freedom of travel and of exchange between Cuban and American artists whose culturally diverse imaginations and creative collaborations are so necessary to dismantle the immoral blockade and censorship that impedes citizens from both countries in their projects to build respectful, just, and peaceful relationship between our two countries.
Danny Glover
(Immoral, censorship, just, where do you even start?)
In a PR release on the business wire in support of a new campaign unleashed in response to Alicia Alonso’s letter. If they only expended the merest fraction of their seemingly limitless self-righteous indignation on the treatment of Cubans by the regime….

6 thoughts on “The Utility of an Idiot or Two or Three”

  1. I don’t know who Penn thinks he’s kidding with that artsy-fartsy bullshit, but some sort of noxious fumes have clearly gone to his head. These Hollywood people are so far out of touch with anything resembling reality that they might as well be Martians. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they’re just plain, garden-variety assholes in fancier-than-usual wrapping.

  2. “If they only expended the merest fraction of their seemingly limitless self-righteous indignation on the treatment of Cubans by the regime…”
    Eso es clave…
    Forget the pros and cons of the embargo. I diagree with people who call for normalized relations, but I can respect it if they call for it for the purpose of freeing the Cuban people from an oppressive regime.
    But this… where if I didn’t know any better I would read stuff from groups like this one (or ENCASA, etc.) and think that Cuba’s government was not even part of this story…
    That’s offensive to me.

  3. “Let’s let those poets in the United States and Cuba interact.”
    Yes, by all means, Sean. If only the Cuban government would let Cubans loan each other books written by Americans. Sean, you should address this complaint to the American Library Association.
    And I can’t wait to see all my Miami gangster buddies this spring!
    Ry, I’m going to go home and sell my copy of Buena Vista Social Club on Amazon right away. It will be going cheap.

  4. “Gangster buddies in Miami.” That says it all folks. No dialog, no quarter, no surrender. FUCK THEM ALL. DAMN THEM ALL TO HELL.

  5. George, I can always count on you to put my feelings into words. Could not have said it better myself.

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