Fidel's Finale

"Condemn me, it does not matter: history will absolve me."

In an age where true leadership is all but passed from the world of man, a character of the stature of Fidel Castro stands like an oak amongst weeds. Most people in America have no conception of what an incredible man has been antagonizing our government for the past 50 years. This man, by the power of his convictions and the determination of his heart, liberated an island that had been under corrupt and vicious leadership ever since the Spanish landed there and commenced massacring the Arawak some 500 years prior. Out of all Latin America in the late 1950's not a single government or movement could stand up to Yankee imperialism without being toppled by a coup or being bought off by money. Then along came a tenacious lawyer who bravely offered himself up as a leader for his oppressed people to overthrow the cruel gangster regime of Batista. After a failed uprising, several years of imprisonment, exile and then a protracted guerrilla war, the people celebrated in Havana as the bearded warriors, headed by Castro, marched in as liberators. Unlike most self made leaders, Castro actually seemed concerned with the welfare of his people. Under his administration universal literacy and the best health care system of any 3rd world nation. He never betrayed his people, and by leaving the weapons in the hands of his revolutionary brothers, ensured that he could never turn into a self serving autocrat. It was once said that the greatest among us are servants to the rest, and such is how Castro composed himself in his almost 50 years of leading his country. In an age where leaders sell their people daily, we must take a moment to honor the last of an all but extinct bread of humans that dates back to Ramses and King David. May the Cuban people use what they have learned and blaze a new path now that the father of country has moved from the headlines to the history books. As a good friend of Castro's once said: "Hasta simpre la victoria"