Ana Menendez, the odious Herald columnist characterized by her equine features and her self-hating commentary, has penned a column in which she once again misses the point.
The announcement, a boring political footnote anywhere else, was greeted here with the hysteria, glee and indignation that is the mark of manufactured scandal…
Charles Rangel, the Democrat from New York, has traveled to Cuba as Fidel’s guest and repeatedly called for an end to the embargo. Not surprisingly, he’s earned the hatred of many conservative exiles.
No Ms. Menendez, that’s not the only reason many exiles of all stripes loathe the man. They hate him for the same reason they hate you, namely a failure to understand who the bad guys are and who the good guys are.
Rangel had to admit that at last one of his visits to his friend castro was partially paid by the Cuban government. Charles Rangel is not your run of the mill naive anti-embargo activist. Additionally, his words and his actions show disdain for the exile community.
In 2007 Rangel wrote a column for Cigar Aficionado in which he stated:
I was so revolted by the behavior of my fellow Americans in Miami that I wrote a letter to President Castro expressing my sympathy and offering an apology for my countrymen’s heartless celebration.
He was referring to the spontaneous celebrations of Cuban-Americans of all ages when it appeared that castro might actually be dead.
As Val Prieto said to me the other day: “Who gave Charles Rangel the right to apologize for me?”
Yale University Professor Carlos Eire, said about one of Ms. Menendez’ media colleagues from the New York times who pitched him on the idea of an op-ed column in which he would criticize the celebrations of his fellow Cuban-Americans, “The ignorance and insensitivity revealed in that pitch was so staggering and appalling-so much in the same league as the Holocaust deniers or the clueless socialites in William Hamilton’s cartoons- that it caught me off guard.
I don’t see what’s so hard for Rangel and the folks at the Times to understand. fidel castro has brought misery and death to Cuba in inconceivable measures. I don’t have to apologize to anyone for being happy that he might suffer a little bit in his death.
More from Rangel:
The sad fact is that much of the harsh feelings harbored by some people in Miami are like ancient feuds between families. They hold on tight to the anger, even if the reasons are forgotten. I once met a young man who said he admired my work in Congress, except for my position on lifting the embargo against Cuba. When I asked why, he told me that he had been told by his grandparents since childhood that Castro had stolen all of their property. I asked, What property? He said he didn’t know.
This argument that exiles are motivated by greed and revenge for losing property (which they claim was ill-gotten to begin with) has been leveled against us since the beginning of the regime. Well Mr. Rangel, I can assure you that I have no property to claim and no other objective than to see my parent’s country rid of the totalitarian dictatorship that has plagued it for half a century in no small measure because of enablers like you. I have nothing personal to gain from the liberation of political prisoners like Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet. Mr. Rangel you were one of only 22 house members that voted against a resolution in support of dissidents on the island. Even Jeff Flake voted for it.
So Ms. Menendez don’t lecture me on why it’s important to understand who is backing whom in this election. Forces are lining up against the incumbent and there is a commonality among them. Menendez, Aruca, Lesnik, Rangel, et al. They are all people that hate the exile community and are openly embracing Garcia, not because he’s a fidelista (he’s not) but because the change these people seek is not in Cuban policies that make Cuba a failed police state but instead a change to American policy that doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of a government that killed scores of our countrymen and imprisoned scores more.
h/t: Pep
Henry,
Did I misunderstand the following statement?
“(which was ill-gotten to begin with)” Was this sarcasm? Because if it wasn’t I have a bone to pick with you.
It’s funny, the post below this one invokes the famous and ever-reliable What Would Jesus Do hypothetical, yet you then proceed to defend celebrating a human being’s death.
It’s okay, I like to pick and choose when to apply morals too.
Firefly, you know me better than that. It was supposed to be from their point of view. A point of view that I of course don’t agree with.
Mike,
You know what I think is funny is that some people don’t realize that different people have different opinions. And that different people write for this blog. When it comes to fidel castro, I’m more of an old testament kind of guy.
Mike, Am I reading correctly? You’re upset, and find it hypocritical to hope for the death of a tyrant just because we may be devout Christians? If so, then why don’t you fly to Havana tonight and help clean up Fidel’s spittal and diarhea as an act of humanity. You ought to stand in front of the families of all those innocent men and women that were butchered by that monster simply because they didn’t agree with what was happening. Maybe you can explain to a mother who lost a son why Fidel deserves our ‘love and understanding’ as good Christians. Morals? You have none!!!
Hey Mike, I may have misunderstood your comment. You may have been referring to that dumb-ass Pastor, if so, my deepest apologies. The Menedez stuff really fired me up. I’ll be more careful.
“the odious Herald columnist characterized by her equine features.” I guess a Jesuit education is overrated. What’s next, insulting her mother? Pathetic from someone capable of arguing the issue on the merits.
You know what they say, “If you don’t like what’s on, change the channel.”
Henry,
I know. But those that don’t know you (and are reading your posts for the first time) could have misinterpreted that statement. That’s the only reason I asked. I knew what your answer would be before you posted it.
firefly, I changed the post to reflect what I meant.
miramiradepalmira:
Ana Menendez is a pitiful creature not even deserving of our hatred. If Henry wants to call her “horse face” he’s being way too kind.
God knows she’s called us far worse.
Tienes un premio 11 de abril en http://birmaniafree.blogspot.com/2008/04/premio-11-de-abril.html
Henry is right…she has called the entire Cuban community criminals (The Miami Mafia)and we are always her punching bag with her sarcastic column.
It getting old!
I am not one who likes name calling, but every once in a while we need to let some steam out…plus I learned a new word today…”equine”…classic!
Thanks Henry.
“They hold on tight to the anger, even if the reasons are forgotten.”
Oh no. I remember why the anger with castro, although I’m not Cuban, do not have property to reclaim and do not even hate Rangel as much as many (OK all) of you do.
I remember to missle crisis. I remember Mariel. I remember the 75, Valadares. I remember reading about a country with a high standard of living that is now a third world country.
How could anyone conceive of forgetting?
I just read the Ana Menendez piece, calling her “equine featured” is NOTHING compared to the slanderous tone of her article.
It’s an insulting, self-hating venomous diatribe. Perusing it, I envisioned her tongue hissing in and out of her horse face as she typed away.
By the way, just to point out one of the many misleading points that she makes, there’s a big difference between Joe Garcia officially meeting Rangel, and Ros-Lethinen and Diaz-Balart being at a rally where Posada happens to be at. Needless to say, at the heart of her objection is the warped moral equivalancy that equates Posada with Castro.
Ana Menendez’s facial features do resemble Mr. Ed, the talking horse. That should be a compliment to her. Henry could have been meaner. For example, he could have mentioned that her husband cheated on her with another filly while he was on an overseas assignment. Wilbur. . .
“They hold on tight to the anger, even if the reasons are forgotten” Hmmm, would he say this about US blacks and slavery?
So just to recap, your strong points are:
• I should clean up Fidel’s diarrhea
• You do in fact, pick and choose your morals (the old testament and new testament aren’t mutually exclusive, Henry).
I’m not a Fidel supporter by any means, Mambi, but apparently I have no morals for claiming that you should not celebrate death.. a sound argument.
“Ana Menendez, the odious Herald columnist characterized by her equine features…”
I LOVE that… You made my day… better yet, my week.
Mike,
I’m just a sinner trying to make sense of evil in the world.
I never said anything about diarrhea. You know that there are different people on here.
If your not going to be happy the day fidel dies that’s fine but get off your high horse. Did you weep for Ted Bundy?
“They hold on tight to the anger, even if the reasons are forgotten” Hmmm, would he say this about US blacks and slavery?”
You beat me to it. That is hilarious — Rangel, just a drop in the ocean of voices who sometimes even claim that slavery is still going on in America, which has apologized in myriad ways (including 620,000 dead), wants the CA community to forgive Castro & Co. who have yet to admit to even jaywalking.
As for the “equine features” thing, I understand being angry at Menendez or anyone else who thinks Cuban exiles bad/Castro good, but we look a lot better, as it were, if we limit our complaints and rebuttals to the merits of the beliefs/arguments/philosophy of the likes of Menendez (an infinite supply of material there) and leave physical appearance out of it. I’m sure some of us aren’t exactly cover girls either…
Yes, I realize there are other people, it’s why I addressed each of you separately.
And it’s not a very high horse I’m on, honestly.
The issue is not and never was Ana Menendez (sic). In and of herself she’s utterly insignificant. The issue is why the Herald, in a market with a very significant proportion of Cuban-Americans, would foist someone like her on them (she’s neither the first nor the only such example of Herald policy). Think about that a bit.
Well Mike, I guess I understood you correectly. Therefore, my comments stand. Yes, I’ll celebrate the death or illness of that monster, and I still consider myself a good Christian with very high morals. Maybe you’d like to meet one of those grieving mothers… I have.
I am a Christian and I would have to think that every Christian — Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and every denomination or sect therein — would hold up as the ideal that Fidel would repent and bend his knee before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords before he dies.
Some of you might have a hard time with that and I understand. But we are taught that his blood can make the foulest clean and salvation is still Fidel’s for the asking, if he repents and is sincere.
Having said that, Henry’s remark about the Old Testament is not totally off the mark. Castro reminds me of Pharaoh, and remember that God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart”, one of the more controversial/difficult passages in the Bible until you consider that the possibility that one reason for God hardening Pharaoh’s heart was to ensure that Israelites would be freed, and soon. Pharaoh’s heart was already pretty hard to begin with but apparently not quite at total intransigence, which would have meant he might have vacillated indefinitely between periods of lenience (that would lull the Israelites into a false sense of security) and periods of extreme cruelty, and so give the Israelites a case of battered wife syndrome: “Pharaoh’s actually very loving and nice when he’s not beating me!” Remember that it’s very hard to get a battered wife to leave her husband.
So God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, perhaps saying “Hardening your heart, huh? I’ll give you a hardened heart!” and thus guarantees that through the ten plagues the world sees the power God (and the powerlessness of the Egyptian gods), and the Egyptian people are so terrified by the presence of the Israelites that they not only let them leave, they stand totally still while the Israelites loot them on their way out of Dodge.
To make a long story a little less long, pure speculation here, but it may be that the Lord sees Castro as a lost case at this point and long ago hardened his already hard heart to ensure that freedom comes to Cuba that much sooner.