Reflection on Fidel

Sometimes it seems that America should be assessed with a near-universal diagnosis of borderline personality disorder.  A leader is either messianic or that leader is satanic.  Either such person will bring in the Kingdom of God or lead people to hell.  Most leaders, truth be told, fall well in between those extremes.

Earlier this month Fidel Castro died, aged 90 years.  Most descriptors from American commentators could be summed up in the expression, "bloody dictator," which appeared over and over again.  One would imagine that any revolutionaries, including Gen. George Washington and his crew, had a lot of blood on their hands.   And there were no doubt atrocities on both sides of the American Revolution Likewise on both sides of the Cuban Revolution, which was fought successfully to overthrow the corrupt and bloody dictator Fulgenico Batista, who was a darling of American big business and the U.S. Mafia.   It is difficult to escape the conclusion that hypocrisy is rampant when we see American Christians reject the pacifist teachings of Jesus and support warfare and imperialism, while accusing   leaders of foreign nations of having blood on their hands. The United States has a long history of supporting cruel dictators which it benefitted our economy.  As for Castro's dictatorship, we would do well to remember that we Americans don't have democracy either.  We don't elect our president; the Electoral College does; and corrupt partisan gerrymandering ensures that there is no democracy at lower levels.

A fairer view might be to ask what Castro, with all his failings, managed to accomplish in his home country of Cuba.  Some are aware that the Cuban healthcare system is one of the best in the world, providing universal healthcare for all Cubans, as well as free care for needy people in third-world nations.  Likely not very many Americans are aware that Castro created a country in which there is no homelessness, no child exploitation, no malnutrition, and no illiteracy.    In addition, Cuba boasts a very low unemployment rate, as well as the lowest juvenile violence rate in the world.   All of these accomplishments were achieved despite sixty years of the brutal American blockade of their country, which still has not been fully lifted.  Our nation has achieved none of these benchmarks for human development.  Perhaps self-criticism would serve us better.