Ban of book on Cuba lands in court

[Rose Siding]

MIAMI (Reuters) - A children's book that fails to paint a harsh picture of communist Cuba is at the heart of the latest battle between Cuban exiles in Miami and civil libertarians over cherished U.S. free-speech rights.

A federal court is scheduled to hear arguments this week in a lawsuit against the Miami-Dade County School Board's decision in June seeking to ban the book, called "Vamos a Cuba" in Spanish and "A Visit to Cuba" in English, from elementary school libraries.

Critics say the book's pictures of smiling Cuban children and bland generalities, meant to teach 5- to 7-year-olds about life on the island, distort the harsh realities of food rationing, one-party political rule and other facets of life under a brutal communist dictatorship.

"The book teaches our kids that Cuba is a paradise," said Julio Cabarga, president of the exile group Cuban Patriotic Council. "We want to make sure our community knows that we are against the pack of lies, half-truths and deceit that this book is projecting to our kids and our grandkids."
...
"Three hundred grand. To fight over a children's book. And, in all probability, lose. Can you spell idiocy, boys and girls?" Pitts (a Miami Herald columnist wrote). "If you were educated in a Miami public school, there's a good chance you can't. Yet, the school board has $300,000 to waste on this foolishness?"

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-07-16T162237Z_01_N16221386_RTRUKOC_0_US-RIGHTS-CUBA-USA.xml&archived=False

[IndianaGreen]

1. The rightwing wants children to learn to hate early in life

They also don't want any Americans to travel to Cuba for that will puncture holes in their anti-Cuba propaganda.

Someone should pour some hot tabasco sauce on gusano Julio Cabarga's ass to set his sorry ass on fire!

[pepperbear]

2. Let's remember this story.......

the next time the "Katrina Kids family funtime singers" appear at the WH for some much needed damage control.

[robinlynne]

3. I think Cuban exiles should be banned.

I am gonna get some shit for this one....

[1monster]

4. No, only the ones who, two or three generations later, are still trying

to dictate to both Cuba and the United States about how they live and where we can visit...

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Okay but only the repukelican ones

[Tesha]

11. Are there any other kinds?

> Okay but only the repukelican ones

Are there any other kinds?

Seriously, what's the ratio? 90% Republican? 95%?

It's no wonder why the Rebulicans are so fond of
Cuban immigrants but aren't so hot on anyone else
from elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Tesha

[Mika]

15. Yes there are other kinds.

Looks like you've fallen for the US media propaganda regarding Cuban-Americans.

ex:
charts from opensecrets.org





There are plenty of Cuban-Americans in Miami who think that this book banning crap is whacked too.


I am pro Cuba, but I am not anti Cuban-American because I recognize that its the most vocal anti Cuba extremist minority who get most of the media attention. The majority of Cuban expats and their descendants don't prioritize Cuba.



Cuban-Americans focus is local, not on Cuba or Castro

The survey, aimed at gauging Cuban American views on a range of topics, also found that most of those polled want their elected officials to focus more on local issues rather than on international concerns, such as the much-debated U.S. trade and travel embargo against Cuba.

[Tesha]

16. And you're assuming over-the-table donations equals votes. (NT)

[Mika]

19. Why would you assume that?

Just pointing out that 95% of Cuban-Americans are not repugs as you had assumed. That's all.

[Tesha]

20. I would assume that because the data you supplied...

I would assume that because the data you supplied to back
up your claims about Cuban-American political support was
limited to the above-board financial donations. The actual
vote tallys in the Miami area seem to suggest a different
conclusion, though.

Tesha

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. This really angers me

With all the budget cuts in education, these legal expenses are an extreme hardship for this school district. I wonder how many other books about Cuba they could buy with the money they are spending defending this lawsuit?

[Laughing Mirror]

7. "Can you spell idiocy, boys and girls?"

If you were educated in a Miami public school, there's a good chance you can't.

Or a DC school or a Baltimore school, or take your pick. There's plenty of awful schools in America to go around. That's one of the reasons why so many of us dropped out. We couldn't learn anything. The schools were pitiful, and that was decades ago. They have not improved, but then poverty has only gotten worse too, which is the cause of the problem. I saw a recent poll showing that 44% of adults in DC lack a high-school diploma. Lack of a decent education is an albatross your wear around your neck all your life.

Several years ago, during the Elian Gonzalez debacle, Wash Post ran a picture article on the village where he came from and the school he went to. They actually taught things. The kids knew how to read. Reading the article and looking at the pictures, I remember thinking how I would have jumped at the chance to go to that school, rather than the one that I, like 160,000 other kids in DC schools at the time, was sent to.

[Judi Lynn]

8. It must have absolutely killed the Miami crowd when they were informed

the little boy from Cuba was actually AHEAD of the kids his age in Miami.

[Laughing Mirror]

10. Do you think so? I don't know.

I wonder if they place much value on education at all, or even if they were informed that Cuban schools were much better than Miami's. I doubt if they'd care. They seem to have other priorities.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Here's an amusing look at what Elián would have been taught at

the Lincoln-Martí school in Little Havana:

Demetrio Perez has given Elian a full scholarship to his privately run Lincoln-Marti School. There, according to the Herald, the boy will be taught a conservative philosophy: that "he lives in a Christian society and should support school prayer in public and private schools. He should oppose abortion, homosexuality and racism . . . and we in no way support Cuba or people in Cuba who believe in that system." The school's primary textbook, written by Perez, teaches that "Richard Nixon got a raw deal when he was forced to resign as president and that Americans now regret this and honor him."
(snip)

(The Cast of Characters in a Family Melodrama
The Los Angeles Times | Sunday, January 30, 2000)
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~border/list_articles/0130_latimes_cuba.html

[Laughing Mirror]

18. Lincoln-Martí's 15 schools in Miami-Dade spreading the gospel ...

of ignorance, bigotry and hate.

You wonder where so many small minds in so many high places come from, you need look no farther than the "schools" their brainwashed parents subjected them as children to. Twelve years of indoctrination at Lincoln-Martí would snuff out any child's love of real learning and positive outlook on life. Thank goodness for Elian that he only spent a couple of weeks in that stinking hellhole and that he escaped back to Cuba before permanent brain damage started to take hold. But who knows how many thousands of students less fortunate than Elian the revolting Lincoln-Martí has unleashed into society since then? Chills run down the spine just thinking about.

[Judi Lynn]

13. I found a reference to the kid being moved ahead in school,

even though he was there only a short time. He was enrolled originally in kindergarten.

Recently, Elian's first-grade class learned about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in
anticipation of the holiday honoring King. Perez says the child was put ahead to
first grade, even though it is the middle of the school year and he just turned 6,
because he is such a good reader of Spanish. But he read about King in English.
(snip)

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/elian/textbook.htm

[xchrom]

9. why are so few people in miami dictating what to read,

where to travel and the direction of our foreign policy?

i HATE these people -- they are fucking nuts.

and when castro dies they will rape cuba.

[Judi Lynn]

17. They will rape Cuba if they get the chance.

It was these people, or their parents who maintained the brutal, corrupt society the Cuban people couldn't take any longer before the revolution. Racist, greedy, corrupt Eurpean-descended elite ran roughshod over the poor.

You've seen their fine work in Miami, which has been named the "Poorest city over 500,000 population" in the U.S. by the Census Bureau multiple times, as well as being named "Terror Capital of the U.S." by the FBI, as well as having the distinction of having the most murders, if I'm not mistaken, at some point. Don't forget their astounding cocaine trafficking, and world-famous crooked politicians.

[cosmik debris]

14. I hope someone points out

That Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than the USA!