I read with interest today's commentary entitled: Dancing on Castro's grave is not only unseemly; it's also premature! I support much of what Mr Hall has written but question one of his conclusions, not necessarily about the facts surrounding the present conditions of Black Cubans in Cuba, but about his blaming Dr Castro for that misfortune.

He himself stated in his commentary, "However, it is precisely because poor blacks in Cuba have suffered most from America's 44-year embargo against Cuba that I condemn Miami Cubans for using their considerable political power and influence to keep it in place."

That being so why does he blame Dr Castro? For he stated, "Let me hasten to clarify, however, that I am not in the least bit enamored of Fidel Castro. After all, I am mindful that the people who have suffered most under his dictatorship are fellow blacks who – like black Americans too poor to escape Hurricane Katrina - did not have the means to flee the revolution."

I would like him to consider two matters:

1.  Cuba has lived under a constant threat of US intervention from the earliest days of Cuba's revolution. (I suspect that many loyalists to the British Crown following the 1776 revolution in the colonies of America were not given a free reign to turn back or undermine the American Revolution.) Given the USA's open hostility to the Cuban Revolution and to the leader, and given the attempts being made, even now, to bring about "regime change", what room is there for the Cuban government to slacken the reins they have on the press and other potential areas of destabilization?

Indeed the country has been under perpetual destabilization from day one!
 
2. The second matter also relates to the first. Given all of the above, would Mr Hall be willing to assess the state of medical care in Cuba and compare it to several other selected countries, Black and non-Black, including the USA, and report on the cost of such care, and the accessibility of such services and then tell us where the Blacks in Cuba stand vis a vis the other countries studied? (He may also want to do the same for educational standards and the level of universal literacy).

And so I will ask Mr Hall not to blame the victim. He has rightly championed the cause of the lifting of the embargo against Cuba. (January 24,2006, "Op-Ed"). Like Mr Hall and other fair-minded folks in the USA (including the United Methodist Church).

I wonder what sustains the need for an embargo against Cuba when China enjoys "most favored nation" status. It may well be the need to secure some votes in the Miami area or the New Jersey area. But it also has something to do with racism against predominantly Black populations, e.g. Louisiana and Mississippi.

Our beloved, sitting President may have spoken a bit too innocently when he said, "Good job Brownie!" to Mr Brown of the infamous FEMA.

In the meantime, please convey my thanks to Mr Hall for keeping the issues before us. He is a reminder to us that Vox Populi Vox Dei Est!
 
Reverend Patrick G. Perrin
Brooklyn, NY, USA.