POLITICO Arena: Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen has been suspended for five games because of comments he made about Fidel Castro. Guillen previously told Time Magazine that he has great admiration for the retired Cuban leader – comments that now have officials calling for Guillen to lose his job.
Did the Marlins cave to political pressure? Or was the club right to suspend its manager for praising the communist dictator and longtime antagonist of America?
BENJAMIN: Without a doubt, the Marlin’s braintrust caved to political pressure. Did Ozzie Guillen say something dopey? Yes, he did but it doesn’t warrant a suspension. Fidel Castro is no longer relevant to anyone but bitter aging extremists.
I’m still amazed that because of revanchist Cuban exiles the US continues to mistreat Cuba. Meanwhile, quasi-Communist kleptocracies like Russia, China and Vietnam are embraced. The Chinese Communist Party still spies on and represses its people. The Russians have restored the former head of the KGB and the present head of the Russian mafia as the leader of their kleptocracy. American POWs/MIAs remain unaccounted for in Vietnam, yet Americans purchase MBL merchandise made in Vietnam and China. Many MBL owners have business interests in Russia, China and Vietnam.
Yet the Marlins and MLB brass are embarassed by Ozzie Guillen?
The Marlins action sends a chilling message to athletes and others that free speech rights stop at the shores of Miami Beach. Hmm, that sounds a lot like Castro’s Cuba. Si o no?
It’s time for Americans to tell the Miami Cuban revanchists, “¡Basta Ya! “
Concur. Free speech trumps baseball, apple pie and chevolet. The Marlins have suddenly under-achieved. They are the new Miami “heat” to be hissed at. I often rooted for them, now I will savor each defeat as just. This is not because I do not appreciate their financial woe over the years, but because they hired a man who long publicized his admiration for Castro (who has outlived and out gunned all of the cowboys of his generation). How come the Marlins aren’t appalled about our dictators in corporate America, our warmongers that gave us Iraq and horror tales like Pat Tillman, and our history of “Standing ground” to the dismay of the innocent. I am sorry that people must eat their words and feelings for the mighty dollar. I must admit, I thought the G-man was not such a personality, but such is freedom when it is bought and paid in capitalistic America. We should all be nervous about this trend where some dear not speak their harmless minds for it may pinch the feelings of the powerful pocket book.