‘Desperation Rises in Castro’s Cuba’

I love your newspaper. At long last, an American newspaper prints a story about Cuba – amazingly, a front-page story – that doesn’t sound like Cuban government propaganda. I am breathless. I can scarcely believe it [“Desperation Rises in Castro’s Cuba,” Meghan Clyne, November 30, 2005].

I am a 53-year-old academic psychiatrist, living in Milwaukee, Wis., who fled Fidel Castro’s tyranny on October 14, 1960, with my family. I have grown weary of the New York Times describing – defaming – Cuban-Americans as right-wing extremists, and reading its stale, ritual apologies of the Castro dictatorship touting Cuba’s health care. The entire island of Cuba is a prison and the desperate acts described by Ms. Clyne are not limited to those residing inside the formal “bricks and mortar” system of incarceration but are widespread. Such desperate behavior has a historical context and is actually widespread in Cuba. It may not be an exaggeration to say that Cubans experience daily a national psychological trauma inside their island prison.

Did you know that Cuba has one of the highest suicide rates in the world? I refer you to the following work by Louis A. Perez Jr., “To Die in Cuba: Suicide and Society” (The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2005).

In closing, I would like to thank Ms. Clyne for giving a voice to Cubans on your newspaper’s front page. It means a lot to me.

JUAN HERNANDEZ, M.D.
Brookfield, Wis.

‘CUNY Exhibits Portraits’

Re: “CUNY Exhibits Portraits of Iraqis Killed by American Troops,” I find hard to swallow the smugness that exudes from Geoffrey Batchen, the professor involved in that project, and the evaluation of the president of the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, William Kelly [Jacob Gershman, New York, December 5, 2005].

Mr. Batchen at least is honest. He believes that the U.S. is committing “atrocities” in Iraq, and says so. Mr. Kelly finds the exhibit “complex” and “interesting.” I find the exhibit an insult to America, and I resent the taxes that are spent subsidizing this type of work.

The deaths of innocent adults and children are always tragic, but to place their pictures under the headline of “Look What the Americans Did” is out and out leftist propaganda.

I don’t think that freedom of speech is the issue here. Say whatever you want, publish all the pictures that you want, but don’t take money from the people of New York City to present your views. Since no one will return tax money, perhaps we should be more careful when we dole out money to subsidize these projects.

ETHEL SCHER
Riverdale, N.Y.

‘Only Citizens Deserve to Vote’

It is a sign of the times that elected officials who feel driven to impose their schemes on the rest of us do not give significant consideration to the consequences of their ideas. I refer, specifically, to New York City Council Member Bill Perkins’s bill to allow non-citizens to vote in local elections [“Only Citizens Deserve Right to Vote,” Alicia Colon, New York, November 18, 2005].

Mr. Perkins’s rationale is that since non-citizens pay taxes, they should be permitted to vote and have a voice in city government affairs. While Mr. Perkins may characterize his effort as noble, he should have considered the following:

1. Amendment XV of the United States Constitution provides that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous conditions of servitude.” (Emphasis added.) Amendment XIX adds “sex” as a prohibited factor.

2. Amendment XXVI provides that “The right of citizens of the United States who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of age.” (Emphasis added.)

3. Any argument that these amendments apply only to the federal and state governments is unavailing since a city is a political subdivision of a state and is, therefore, within the ambit and definition of a state.

4. To deny the vote to a non-citizen, therefore, is not to deny him/her a right based on race, color, previous servitude, sex or age; rather, it is based on non-citizenship, a protection not afforded by the Constitution, at least with respect to voting.

5. Mr. Perkins’s bill is not only illogical, it is also unfair to citizens. He is, in effect, advocating a right to vote for non-citizens because they pay taxes to the City of New York, but, apparently, would deny that right to citizens who also pay taxes, but who are commuters.

NORMAN MEDNICK
White Plains, N.Y.
Mr. Mednick is an attorney at law.

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