Son of Cuban Political Prisoner Forgets the Free Health Care

Mark Finkelstein writes tongue-in-cheek about an ungrateful child whose father spent nearly 10 years in Castro's prison:

The United States is not the only country turning out spoiled children, ungrateful for the blessings of life in their land. Cuba is suffering from the same affliction, to judge by "My father's 'crime'" by Yan Valdes Morejon, which appears in today's Boston Globe.

Morejon's column turns out to be just one long complaint. Rather than giving proper thanks for all the wonders of the workers' paradise, like members of our MSM regularly do, it's filled with this kind of kvetching:

He has spent almost a decade in prison, and is serving a 25-year sentence. He has been held in inhumane conditions, sometimes together with violent criminals, and at other times in isolation and total darkness for extended periods. He has lost more than 40 pounds as well as most of his teeth. His crime? Calling for respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Cuba.

My father has been put on trial several times by the Castro regime. Each time, the regime painted his nonviolent, freedom-loving activities as a threat to the security of the state. These illegal proceedings have been widely criticized by many, including the United Nations, which has called upon the Castro regime to release my father.

It is not easy to be the child of a prisoner of conscience. I was a teenager when my father was arrested for the first time. He has been arrested dozens of occasions since then, often without warning, often at night, and it is a frightening experience every time. Nonetheless, my father always met Castro's thugs at the door with dignity, and he has held his head high.

I kept reading, certain that at some point Morejon would have the decency to thank Fidel for the free health care and the low illiteracy and infant mortality rates that the great leader has graciously bestowed on the Cuban people. But no: to the contrary! Speaking of health care, rather than showing some gratitude, Morejon even had the bad taste to mention that his father, a medical doctor, had gotten into trouble for protesting the Castro regime's practice of enforced abortions.

Why can't Morejon show sensitivity, some enlightment, a deeper understanding of the wonders of Cuba and the Castro regime? You know, the way our liberal American media have?

Read the rest, including some of the praise that has been heaped on Castro by the fearless lions of the drive-by-media.