Let’s not shed tears for Fidel

anyone’s death. But it is another to sidestep the historical horrors of a murderous, 60-year military regime and strike a pose of diplomatic equanimity that assuages only gluttons of insincerity.

No wonder so many of them chose to express themselves through Twitter — a communication format well-suited to the small and shallow. Nancy Pelosi tweeted that Castro’s death “marks the end of an era.” Stalin’s death did, too, but who’s judging? Justin Trudeau, Canada’s happy-boy prime minister, called Castro a “remarkable leader,” who “made significant improvements” to Cuba, presumably by taking over all private possessions and culling the island of the middle class. Atta boy.

And then there’s Jimmy Carter, under whose watch Castro emptied his prisons and mental institutions, sending 125,000 inmates as well as other lesser desirables to our shores. As a younger reporter, I spent a week in Miami’s “Tent City,” where local and state officials tried to figure out where to put hundreds of criminals and the mentally challenged. This was thanks to Carter’s telling Castro that countless Cubans wished to leave Cuba.

Although many have lauded Castro’s political acumen, I’ve yet to read about his flair for irony. Carter, for whom irony apparently is what the maid does to his dress shirts, remembered Castro “fondly.” Perhaps as one reaches the age of wisdom, one leans toward greater charity.

President Barack Obama’s remarks were carefully meaningless. Steering clear of specifics, he noted that Cubans are filled with emotions, “recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation.”

Yes, death, torture, oppression, imprisonment, a state-controlled media and a miserable, state-run economy will flat-out alter a person’s course. Obama then grabbed history’s tail and gave it a yank, saying, “History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.”

Aw, come on, let’s beat history to it. One of the worst dictators in modern history has mercifully died.

History will strain little in judging Castro or in sorting out his effect on the world. Now that Obama has eased the decadeslong U.S. embargo, wisely in my view, as well as restrictions on travel, the tiny nation has a shot at reinvention.

President-elect Donald Trump would do well to stay in this lane rather than threaten to reinstate the embargo. He should understand that Castro loved the embargo more than anyone because, as ever, he could blame the U.S. for his failures. For Trump to fall into this same trap would be a postmortem gift to Castro — the dictator’s final triumph over America and U.S. presidents who could never quite bury him.

Fear not

What a heartwarming way to begin Thanksgiving Day by picking up the Journal Sentinel to read the front page story: “Fleeing war, finding peace” (Nov. 24)!

And what more grateful Thanksgiving could be had by these Christian Syrian brothers who have been settled in Milwaukee. We in Milwaukee should be grateful to the humanitarian work of the church and all the people who have helped them along the way.

Perhaps this story will lead to our taking in more Syrian refugees. Wisconsin is embarrassingly well behind other states in settling refugees. Of course, that seems even in more jeopardy with the new president coming to power.

In the meanwhile, let’s make sure that the brothers and other refugees receive enough mental health care if they need it. When I received grants to do so years back, PostTraumatic Stress Disorder was common, as well as the grief of being separated from — or losing — those still in one’s prior homeland.

Do we have anything to fear about embracing such refugees and asylum seekers?

I would answer this way: about as much as Franklin D. Roosevelt when he exclaimed, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

H. Steven Moffic, M.D.

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