To staff writers of Havana Times.org,

     I'm not pious. The totems to which I don't bow include even democracy and press freedom. I've fought all my life for freedom of the press, but I know its limitations. In my critique of Cuban press freedom on this website, I've tempered my call for more freedom with respect for the Cuban revolution. If you've read that document, I hope you understood that part.
    For now, until the dogs of the rich control it, too, the internet has freed the press. The genie is out of the lamp and Cuban leaders have to accept the inevitable and wisely steer their people toward press freedom. But there's plenty not to like about that. Their past reluctance to move too quickly toward a democratic press was wise, and their probably futile effort to keep riding the brake now is benign. The press IS, after all, a powerful force which can and will be used insidiously against a revolution which deserves to be and must be protected.
    Whatever you may think, in the famous US "free market place of ideas," truth does NOT prevail. To the contrary, though truth tellers literally CAN'T be silenced in the U.S., they can be and are drowned out, not just by mainstream media, but also by their fellow citizens who AREN'T truth tellers. As democratic use of the internet spreads, the wicked witch of hard reality has caused a forest of look-alike false prophets to spring up all around the authentic truth tellers and effectively hide them. You know something? That could happen in Cuba, too, including in the pages of the HT. In fact, it can happen in the context of any article in which the writer becomes enamored of the power of his or her pen and disdains to objectively qualify what he or she says.
    Though the quality of unrepressed free speech in Cuba and of the Havana Times proves universal education works better in Cuba than in the U.S., as a realist, I'm forced to doubt that all or even most Cubans are equally able to exercise press freedom responsibly or intelligently.
    Sorry, but I had to say that. The merely liberal US pro-democracy movement, born partly of revolutionary cowardice and over-reaction to the fall of Nicaragua and the Berlin Wall, has always been flawed by naivete and literally silly political correctness, and, while calling itself progressive, has become more regressive as its influence spreads. And, sorry again, but I think I see some of that influence in the Havana Times.
    A civilized state must forge social and economic equality. But intellectual and philosophical equality aren't in the nature of things and can't be invented - even in Cuba. Thanks very much to the parental guidance that rankles some Havana Times writers, the Cuban philosophical average is exceptional, but the democratic idea that when everybody talks, in spite of the din, some mystic majority wisdom will shine through - is not just questionable; it's not true. For sure, the U.S. philosophical swamp has always been more fertile for fascism than for civilization.
    During my 240 days (in seven visits) of walking all over Cuba randomly talking to Cubans I've been generally impressed, and I admire the eloquence of some (not all) Havana Times writers, but now that you're printing in Spanish and hopefully becoming accessible to more Cubans, I wonder what the effect will be. If it's constructive, I'd give a lot of credit to the system that helped you hone your eloquence. Wield it carefully.

-Glen Roberts


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