BY: CAPITOL HILL CUBANS
In a column entitled "Dictators, Si - Republicans, No!," author Star Parker takes on The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg pursuant to his recent spat with Mississippi Governor Haley Barbor (which is not the focus of this post, nor are the partisan views reflected in her opinion).
However, in doing so, she makes some important points regarding Goldberg's recent Cuba trip:
A few weeks ago, Goldberg made news getting invited by Fidel Castro to visit Cuba to spend a couple days chatting it up with him.
Reading through Goldberg's blogs about his visit, he appears infinitely more tolerant and forgiving toward one of the most ruthless Communist dictators of the last century than he is toward Republican Governor Haley Barbour.
In response to criticism that he sat for three days serving up soft balls to Castro, never once asking him about oppression or the hundreds of political prisoners tortured and rotting in Cuban jails, Goldberg writes that Castro isn't as bad as many claim. "Cuba," he writes, "is not as bad Zimbabwe, Burma, Iran, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Eritrea, Venezuela…."
Freedom House, which provides annual ratings of political rights and civil liberties in 194 nations around the world, ranks Cuba among the worst. From Goldberg's list, Iran and Venezuela are actually ranked more free than Cuba.
Regarding racial matters, which supposedly Goldberg cares about, Freedom House reports "Afro-Cubans have frequently complained about widespread discrimination against them by government and law enforcement officials…."
And Dr. Oscar Biscet, a Cuban black Christian physician, sits with a 25 year sentence in prison for protesting human rights abuses and one of the most liberal abortion regimes in the world where, according to National Right to Life, six of ten Cuban pregnancies end in abortion.
Goldberg's priorities and perspectives appear a little out of whack. But, if he was a clear thinker, he wouldn't be a liberal.
*Star Parker is president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education.
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