Don't Take Me There

The lovely Mrs. Graybeard and I grew up in different parts of south Florida.  I grew up in Miami, my parents moving there when I was three, and I didn't move out unitl the year after I graduated high school.  I hung out on South Beach before it was trendy - and not much to look at, either.  She grew up in Ft. Lauderdale, a more upscale town than the parts of Miami I knew. 

Growing up then and there, we had friends who escaped Cuba. Some escaped before Castro's bloody reign began.  Some made it out after.  We saw the slow trickle of refugees who would do anything to escape the communist "paradise" of the Caribbean. Anything that could float, or that could be made to float, was put into service to escape Fidel.  The sharks in the Florida Straits and along the Keys were well fed. 

For these reasons, I cringe when I hear the likes of Micheal Moore singing the praise of Cuba.  They have excellent health care?  Really?  Do you remember when an epidemic of blindness made news out of Cuba?  Blindness caused by malnutrition, missing a handful of vitamins a day? 

Cuba is a hell hole, and Venezuela is on the fast track to joining them.  Pundits refer to Hugo Chavez as "Fidel's Stupider Brother".  Another fairly prosperous country being destroyed by the socialists/communists.  If you don't really know what it's like down there, you ought to read a little about it.  Babalu's Blog is a good place to start, and there are others: Real Cuba .  As your stomach can handle it. 

The constant parade of celebrities hugging Chavez makes me sick.  Idiots.