Cuba

Well, I never believed that it would happen in my lifetime but now Barak Obama has done it. I am very happy that we will now start being at peace with these people. We may not like their government, but we have held the people of Cuba hostage for way too long.

And for those who are angry about this, let's remember that the US had no problem supporting Fulgencio Batista for years-and-years. Batista was an evil and repressive dictator, but he was a friend of Capitalism. Led by Fidel Castro, the Cuban people rebelled against this repression, but Castro was a Communist. So there it all is --- America's age old hysteria about Communism vs. Capitalism. How many people have suffered on the horns of this dilemma?

When we listen to those Miami Cuban exiles rant about Obama making peace with the Castros, we need to remember that they are "Cuban exiles" because they were friends of Batista. Yes, he was a "great leader" --- a friend of mine in Berkeley in the late '50s left Cuba after the Batista regime mailed her brother's head in a box to his mother. That's the kind of guy we supported down there. But now we bawl and complain about Castro's human rights violations.

Some day I will figure out what America really is.

Police in America

Obviously this is a topic of concern today. However, it has been an issue in one way or another for well more than a century. Ask an early trade unionist about the police and you will get an ear full. 

Today, the obvious issue is using lethal force against young black men. But young brown men are scarcely better off. And recent history shows that you don’t necessarily have to be young. The problem? A) police use lethal force in cases where lethal force is not warranted, and B) they are never taken to task for their actions.

Now, it is clear that we need to have police in order to enforce our laws and protect our citizens. It is also clear that serving as a policeman is a dangerous and demanding task. It is also a sobering task. Young police officers see a very bad side of society. The problem, I think, is that police are trained to focus their attention on that “bad society” and they are not fully trained in the “protect and serve” motto that ought to embrace their relations with the whole community. Junior deputies in the Los Angeles Sheriff”s Department, for instance, are required to serve five years in the jails. That’s a great way of getting them involved in communities. No wonder the new officer on the street looks at everyone with suspicion. It’s like saying, as a part of training, “these are the guys we put in here; go find more.” Of course, since most of the young men in jail are either brown or black, it is easy to become a racist without even knowing it. 

But another aspect of police training is at fault here, I believe. Police are trained to draw their guns under almost any circumstance. In contrast, in the military, troops are trained that a gun is drawn and pointed at someone only if their is a real intention to shoot and kill. I once walked into a gasoline station and found myself standing next to a policeman just inside the door with his automatic pistol aimed straight at a young Mexican man who was standing at the counter. The man had no weapon; there was no body lying about; he was, in fact, quite docile. There is no way that he had committed a crime requiring a death sentence, but he was facing deadly force.

Even if Michael Brown was not a very nice kid and bullied his way out of a store with a fist full of cigarillos, he had done nothing that would deserve a death sentence. But he died of multiple gun shot wounds from an officer’s weapon. What brought that about? Unfortunately, we will probably never know unless there is a Federal prosecution. The officer claims that Brown attacked him. But it is also easy to imagine the officer pulling up and shouting some racist thing — like, “Hey Ni…rs get your asses up on the sidewalk” to set up the dynamic. The fact is that the county prosecutor used the Grand Jury as a way of trying Brown without a defense by putting all of his own “evidence” before them and never allowing cross-examination. And this is how police are protected in the system. Police need protection sometimes, but not when they have done bad things. 

I am glad to see the protests all over our country. It’s about time people got fired up enough about something to get out into the streets. Obviously, I am not glad to see a small minority of others jumping into the action and doing violence. All that does is reinforce the police vision of what people are like. I hope that the protests will produce change, but I have to admit that I doubt they will. The police are way too set in their ways to change.

Perhaps the next issue to bring people into the streets will be the complete breakdown of democracy in America. If we don't start reacting to that, it will become a permanent state of affairs.