None so blind

Cindy Sheehan goes to Cuba to protest prison abuse, and all she can be bothered with is Guantanamo?

Look, Turbula's contributors take in a broad swath of the political spectrum, yet it's hard to imagine any of those who make Turbula what it is getting in a frenzy to defend the detention facilities at Guantanamo.

Still, compared to the Cuban prisons, Guantanamo suddenly doesn't look so bad.

Sheehan wants to protest imprisonment without right to appeal? To speedy trial? To regular, private meetings with an attorney?

All and well, and most of Turbula Nation would probably share those aims.

But Guantanamo isn't the only prison on that island with the above conditions.

We realize that Sheehan is very busy in her professional duties, but perhaps she could spare some time to visit the Cubans sitting in prison for the "crimes" of opening private libraries without the government's permission, for trying to organize political parties without the government's permission, for speaking their minds – again, without the government's permission.

Or perhaps instead of talking about how brave she is (a point that seems to come up in more and more of her interviews with reporters) she could actually risk angering her Cuban hosts (who are, after all, only too eager to embarrass the U.S. government) and visit some of the many thousands of Cubans who sit in prison without trial, without charge, without hope of reprieve, guilty of the "crime" of homosexuality.

But we'll not hold our breath, for the willingness of the West's self-proclaimed "progressives" to overlook the fascistic tendencies of Cuba's totalitarian dictatorship is truly remarkable ...

Posted January 7, 2007