'Tear down this economic wall'
Topics:
Posted by RalphBailey Fri Jun 5, 2009 13:50:52 PDT
Viewed 383 times
0 responses 4 comments
Hello, Bakersfield!
I'm very excited about the opportunity to write a column for TBC. Here's what you can expect. I hope to make you think, laugh, get angry, feel passionate about your nation's future, agree with me, disagree with me, think I'm brilliant, think I'm an idiot, a raving lunatic yet overall good egg and not take me, yourself or this column too seriously.
There'll be consistent themes, for this is a conservative column. It is not, however, a Republican column, not a Democratic column, not even an Independent column. Inevitably, it will be all over the map on a wide range of issues only seeking truth, justice and the American Way, by God!
My landlord's name is Fidel Smith. (It's not Smith but his first name is Fidel.) Great guy, great landlord. My apartment manager's name is Carol. (Yes, all the names have been changed to protect the innocent.) Great gal, great manager.
On April 1, moments after dropping off my rent check, I received a call at work from Carol.
"Ralph, gonna need another check from you," she said.
"What's the problem, Carol?" I asked.
"Our landlord's name is Fidel Smith, Ralph."
"I'm aware of that Carol," I said. "Again, what's the problem?"
"You made your check out to Fidel Castro, Ralph!"
We had been talking about Cuba on my radio show and the old, murderous, wretched, decrepit dictator cleeearly still stuck in my head.
Recently, President Obama lifted travel restrictions blocking Cuban Americans from traveling to the communist island nation. The only mistake the president is making is NOT lifting the trade embargo.
When another young Democrat, President John F. Kennedy, initiated the policy, his actions exemplified the hypocrisy of the entire policy before it even began.
Kennedy Press Secretary Pierre Salinger told me when he visited here in the late 1990s that the president ordered him to run around Washington, D.C., the night before the embargo was set in stone and scoop up more than 1,000 Cuban Petit H. Upmann cigars.
In hours, the Cuban leaf would be unavailable to any American citizen, even and especially the president of the United States. President Clinton modified the embargo in 1999, forcing foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to stop trading with Cuba and restrict American businesses from conducting business with Cuban interests.
But despite the 47-year-old embargo, we're the seventh largest exporter to Cuba. Nearly 5 percent of Cuba's imports come from us! Even the Organization of American States abandoned its 11-year economic blockade in 1975 and each year, the General Assembly votes to condemn our act, known officially since 1992 as the "Cuban Democracy Act."
Certainly, we're not going to take our marching orders from the United Nations. However, the most salient evidence of a failed regime change is the fact the Castro boys are still in power. Go ask your farmer neighbors if Cuba would be a fertile and lucrative agricultural market. The answer is, "si!"
And let's face it, we do business with countries with much more egregious records on human rights than Cuba!
So I say, stealing from The Gipper, Mr. Obama, tear down this economic wall!
See you on the radio.
| Send to a Friend | Report a Violation |
Greetings Ralph. I couldn't find another place to comment on your most recent article about grammar. I'm pleased and encouraged at the spirit of your piece.
However (and I may be wrong), I'm not sure about the usage of the word "squashed." I normally would let it go, but since the article was about usage, I had to comment. "Quashed" might have been the word you intended.
According a summary Internet search, quash means to crush or to subdue or to suppress or extinguish summarily and completely, while squash means to compress, crush, or squeeze.
By this definition, the Ebonics movement was quashed, not squashed.
Cheers!