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01/20/00
Mr.
Warren Beatty
Re:
Cuba and Fidel Castro.
Dear
Mr. Beatty:
Your
Eleanor Roosevelt Annual Awards acceptance
speech was inspiring. Like many others, I
admired and respected your courage and eloquence on
that day. I now further understand why we have found
a superior quality in so many of your films.
As an actor and as a director, your integrity and
strength of character are surely exhibited in your
work.
Given
the context of the speech, your perspectives of the
media were particularly candid. Like Bullworth,
and under different circumstances, you might
assuredly provide further enlightenment on this
important issue. Valid campaign financing
reform, it would be hoped, would allow democracy to
better work its wonders. But, how far could
the manipulation of the hearts and minds continue
without a basic transformation of forces that now
power our media? Even the dream of
equalization held out by the Internet seems to fade
in the light of its latest version of brand exposure
and site viewer statistics.
What
best forms and nurtures the inquiring mind can be a
difficult question. But, I believe that
fortunately, it is our essential longing for
knowledge and truth that makes us evolve and has
intrinsically made us human. Certain aspects
of society seem to have a stifling effect on our
humanity through the many ills that you so
articulately enumerated. It is in this
context, with one specific remark within your speech
I now take issue. Like you proudly call
yourself, my father used to also call
me a "bleeding-heart liberal" but,
on this following subject, I have been confronting
otherwise like-minded democrats and S.D.S. members
throughout my college days and beyond; often seeming
an unlikely thorn in their otherwise conformed presentations.
In
your speech, while urging censure of China for its
human rights violations, you expressed an apparent
approval of Fidel Castro and the current Cuban
regime by advocating the recognition of Cuba's
government. Coming from you, I found this seeming
double standard on international policy somewhat
confusing. The deprivations and total
media manipulation under which Cuban people live and
have lost their personal and collective freedom of
expression and their human liberty should not be
lightly dismissed. Mr. Castro's government is
anything but legitimate.
Cuba
is a sovereign state and, some argue Fidel Castro
may have fostered slight progress, but at what cost? The often voiced, blaming
of many of his injustices on United States policy toward
Cuba remains, I believe largely, a naive
exercise. To blame his atrocities on the embargo, a forty-plus year
continual fear of a second CIA or US military backed
invasion, would also be simplistic and inaccurate.
A
clearer awareness of the convictions and aspirations that
fostered the Cuban Revolution and placed Castro in power,
would reveal the complex conditions that were present in
Cuba prior to January 1, 1959. Like an
enlightened John Reed, one would weigh the cost, in
human lives and suffering, through which any supposed strides
may have been attempted. In spite of our own
flaws, I ask you how important are the
values on which our country, any democratic country or,
the still suspended Cuban Constitution of 1940, was
founded? How should governments and individuals best
insure that such principles are defended?
Any
further or more specific thoughts from you on this issue
would be eagerly
welcomed; and I hope you find a moment to consider the
matter further at:
www.pearlfilms.com.
or Email us.
Yours
most sincerely,
Dr. Robert L. Chacona
175 West 72nd St. #3F
N.Y., NY 10023
Eleanor Roosevelt
Annual Awards
- Acceptance
Speech: 09/29/99
(
AN
OFF-SITE
LINK)
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Though
filled with idealism, I was too young to cast my first
democratic presidential vote for J. F. K. in 1960 over
Nixon. After actively campaigning for Eugene
McCarthy, I voted for Humphrey in '68. Like you,
I too campaigned for McGovern in '72. I voted
for Carter in '76 and in '80. For Mondale
in '84, I was too disillusioned to vote at all but was
hopeful when casting my vote for Dukakis in '88.
Too suspicious of the candidate, to vote democratic in
'92, I futilely
cast my vote for Perot in protest. By 1996, my
confirmed distrust for Bill Clinton convinced me that
staying home was a sane option.
In 2000 I was, and remain, a proud Nader-voter.
The party may have become more
reactionary, myopic and self-serving than even its
opposition; it needs to radically reevaluate what's
next for Democrats?
'Every
issue is a bipartisan issue'.
SOME
ON-SITE LINKS:
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'Cuban
Education'
