Politicians lie, but still get elected
Cuba’s history is way more complicated than the selective excerpts we read or listen to in the news. Our willful ignorance is the fundamental reason that allows politicians like U.S. Congressman Carlos Gimenez and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to deceive and take advantage of their constituents.
Gimenez came to the United States in November 1960, when he was 6 years old. He tells voters he was being “indoctrinated” in school. Fidel Castro did not announce he was a Marxist-Leninist until December 1961, hence Gimenez’s “indoctrination” never started.
Rubio often embellishes the story of being the
“son of exiles.” In reality, his parents came to America in 1956, two and a half years before Castro took power and almost five years before Castro announced he was a communist.
Neither one tells their voters that before Castro, the U.S. government aided Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship. The United States supplied Batista with planes, ships and tanks, which he used against those fighting to reinstate democracy on the island.
Neither one mentions that Cuba was divided between the haves and the have-nots, grounds used by Castro to start the revolution. They do not say that Castro originally was backed only by the poor, but later gained the support of the influential middle class. Nor do they say that most Cubans eventually wanted Castro in power.
The horrible mistakes Cubans and Americans made seven decades ago still affect our lives here today.
Why do we elect those who deceive us and try to divide us more than we are already?
Let’s imagine for a moment how powerful our society would be if we got rid of our current tugof-war and we just all pulled in the same direction.
– Manuel Fernandez-Jacobs,
Coral Gables
GRAY POWER
Like fine wine or good cheese, aging has real importance attached to it. Florida seniors own more property, pay more taxes and vote more than any other age group. There is power in being a “veteran” human, so get ready, as you will join our group sooner than you think.
If you are 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years old, have you thought about retirement and your golden years?
Statistics show Americans clearly are not planning or saving enough. A 401(k) roller-coaster is not a pension, and congressional action is needed to bolster Social Security.
Miami-Dade County has more than 35,000 seniors drawing pension benefits from the Florida Retirement System. These are benefits earned by years of service. Those $200 million in annual benefits are spent in our county, supporting goods, services and charities, providing economic dignity. Seniors have the expertise, experience, institutional memory and more power than you might think.
Plan ahead and consider the value of a job that has lifetime benefits attached to it. You will have worked hard for it and earned stability on the back end of your career.
– George Ellis, board member, Miami-Dade County Retired Educators Association, Miami
DEVELOPERS’ FRIENDS
Thank you for the strong Aug. 18 editorial on the demolition of Al Capone’s historic Miami Beach home. It is both tragic and economic malpractice by Republican legislators and Gov. DeSantis, who enacted a law restricting local governments’ ability to establish historic districts (among other idiotic local governmental restrictions).
I arrived in Miami in
BOB MCFARLIN
May 1983 and worked for Jewish Family Services, which had an office on South Beach. It’s hard to believe that, back then, South Beach was economically depressed, a truly slum and blighted area. Designating it the Art Deco District sparked South Beach’s revitalization, making it one of the most desirable and high-end communities in Florida, now worth billions of dollars.
As an affordable-housing developer for 28 years, I am sure that the Republican legislators who have effectively killed home rule in cities and counties throughout Florida have received hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of political contributions from developers (at one time, home rule was a plank in the Republican Party’s platform). In short, these myopic Republicans have effectively killed the goose who lays golden eggs, just for their shortterm personal benefit.
– Doug Mayer, Stone Soup Development,
Coral Gables
ALEX MENA PROBLEM SOLVERS
That Republicans’ primary legislative agenda is the attack on the national “crisis” of transgender children is great.
They must have already solved the healthcare crisis, climate change, inflation, housing, poverty, school infrastructure, failing education systems, lack of affordable insurance and world peace.
What will their next big issue be? Hunter Biden? I feel so relieved.
– Michael Friend, Kendall
PUSHING BOUNDARIES
The Herald’s Aug. 17 online editorial, “DeSantis’ leaked debate memo leads us to ask: Is this guy for real?” is illuminating. As important as the facile, non-substantive debate strategy (defending Trump, calling fellow debater “Vivek the Fake”) Gov. DeSantis was going to use, it is playing fast and loose with the coordination prohibition laws.
The Never Back Down Super PAC is the predominant fund raiser for DeSantis’ campaign. By law, it can’t coordinate with
DANA BANKER
the campaign. However, the PAC put its debate strategy on its website so that DeSantis could
“find” its instructions. If it quacks like illegal coordination, it probably is.
– David W. Singer,
Miami Beach
FARM-TO-SHOP
According to a recent Miami Herald staff report, discount grocery chain Aldi is purchasing the Winn-Dixie grocery chain.
In the early 1980s, my wife, baby daughter and I circumnavigated the Florida peninsula during the summer in our brand new Ford station wagon. As we were touring northern counties (with a historical feature of openrange cattle grazing), I noticed pine and grasslands from horizon to horizon. According to posted signs, Winn-Dixie owned these areas.
In 2007, Florida had
3.2 million acres of pastureland and 1.3 million acres of grazed woodland. Did Aldi, a German company, also purchase any Winn-Dixie land?
– Don Deresz, Miami
TAKE A LOOK
Many thanks to the lapdog legislators who passed bills allowing Gov. Ron DeSantis not to resign to run.
I’m not thrilled with helping to pay for it, but at least this helps expose him to voters in other states.
– Jack Wilcosky, Pinecrest
PLEA DEAL
Besieged by myriad legal charges, Donald J. Trump and his legal team must be overwhelmed.
How to defend against the onslaught of criminal accusations? Could there be one “cure-all” solution to this quagmire?
Of course. Just plead insanity. The evidence and the scientific support are irrefutable. At least 150 million fellow American citizens would concur, and it is the only position for which his defense team could win support from them.
Trump could be required to stay at Mar-aLago until a team of mental health professionals determine if it is safe for society for him to leave the resort; but don’t hold your breath, though.
– Barry J. White, Miami
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