Civic resistance lesson for Americans

For quite a few weeks now, a fellow blogger and I – both free Americans, after escaping from communist countries – have been ranting at the indifference so many people around us have towards the path this nation is going under the current administration.

We feel we are screaming to the top our lungs and nobody is listening.

There are bad days when we think that calling upon the red flags of American being heavily penetrated by socialism in Facebook, Twitter and blogs is completely useless.

There is the frustration of seeing so many young Americans taking their freedom and their rights for granted.

There are days when I personally think, “Darn it, should we really need to have a United Socialist States of America for people to learn the lesson the hard way?”

And there are that bad days when we just want to throw the towel and say: “I’m done.”

But then, unavoidably, I have an epiphany, usually dressed in plain white in the streets of Havana. It is when I look back and see the plea of the Ladies in White, relentlessly standing for their loved ones, against the powerful machine of the communist repression.

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These women have no weapons, no idea what the second amendment rights are, and very limited resources. But they have no fear.

For the first time in the 50 years Cuba have lived subjugated by castros’ boots, ordinary citizens have realized how important is to be out there, even walking silently, and be seen by others.

With their peaceful and powerful message against the communist repression, they are taking their voices beyond the plea of freedom for their jailed relatives. They are also having the set of pants needed to stand for all those Cubans that do not have the courage or the principles to stand for themselves.

Yes, they are, indirectly, lending their voices to all those opportunistic Cubans that have learned to live with two faces. These wives, daughters, mothers, sisters and friends know, in a nutshell, they can never surrender.

Every Sunday, amid repudiation acts, they walk in the streets of Havana, nearby the Santa Rita church in the Miramar neighborhood, holding flowers in their hands.

They do not have the luxury to complain about how useless is to denounce the abuses in Twitter, Facebook or a blog. After all, they barely have access to the Internet, at outrageous prices. They only have their flowers, their feet covered by worn out shoes and their iron will.

They know there is not such a thing as “someone will do it for me” or “someone will take care of demonstrating for my husband/son/brother”.

There is very little civic solidarity in a society plagued by distrust, where we are being taught to snitch out even our family members when they criticize the revolution.

That's why we can have an invaluable teaching moment here.

Conservatives, moderates and common sense Americans, for once, should look at the plea of the Ladies in White and for once, learn from a fellow human being standing for freedom.

Do you want to continue ignoring us, right-winger, intransigents, extremists, paranoid Cuban Americans, Poles, Russians, Vietnamese, Romanian, Czechs, et al and our piece of advice? Fine.

But please, look at what these women are doing ninety miles South of Florida, literally, in the face of the communist monster.

They are being dragged in the streets, physically attacked by government-led mobs; their children are being harassed, discredited and bullied in school because their father is a political prisoner, because their mother dresses in white every Sunday and walks with a flower nearby a church.

We, Americans, need to take a look there and learn from these women.

They have no chance whatsoever against seven or eight different repressive corps, plus the political police. However, they have kept their dignity. They haven’t put up with the laziness, the fatigue and the frustration of screaming to deaf ears. They just keep walking because at the end of the day, they know they are doing the right thing, and nobody else is going to do it for them.

"We are peaceful women, and we have dignity too. And we demand freedom from this government. We are not going to shut up. Whatever it takes; even if they drag us through the floor. Even if they kill us."

Berta Soler, wife of political prisoner Angel Moya, sentenced to 20 years in prison.  

Oppresses human being all over the world have always sought the United States as the last beacon of freedom. When you are on the other side of the iron curtain, this country is the only light that stands and the end of a very dark tunnel. If we allow that light to shut off, what will we have left?

Personally, I terrify at the mere thought that in a few years, I may need to look in the eye of my American-born of Cuban descent son and tell him: "I didn't put up a fight, I was waiting for someone else to resist for me, I didn't defend your future..."

Don't know about you, but ain't not good at that scenario. I've been able to put off with the crappiest things in live -while wearing high heel black pumps. But I can not even imagine that conversation with my son.

The civic lesson, fellow Americans, is right in front of our eyes.
If we lose our country, we will be lost forever.