Thursday, July 17, 2008

Finally! An Explanation for Why I Hate This Shirt...


(NEW DISCLAIMER FOR THE RANDOM PEOPLE THAT ARE READING AND LEAVING COMMENTS ON MY BLOG: This blog has nothing to do with how great or awful Glenn Beck is, but more to do with what I believe based on my time in Cuba. I use his article as a reference point...please study more on the issue for a broader scope)

Okay, I realize not everyone cares, but I read an article from Glenn Beck this morning and was really satisfied that it was finally written.

Alot of you have seen "trendy" teens or "cool people" sporting the Che Guevara shirt over the past few years and maybe in your head you thought, "Hmmm...I am not cool enough to actually know who he is...maybe I should just buy one to be in style." I hope you didn't. I have been to Cuba twice and wouldn't call myself an expert, but I understand what this man means to most non communist Cubans, but living in a country ran by communists they aren't really able to share their opinions either way. Cuba is in dire need of reconstruction and nearly every building looks 200 years old, but you can always find a new billboard or building painted with this man's face on it.

Che helped Fidel Castro over throw Cuban Dictator Fulgencio Batista. (Well Batista got the heck out of town while everyone associated with him was hauled off and murdered) Once that was finished, Castro wanted to make him a head honcho but he chose (not being from Cuba himself) to go off and start new revolutions. He failed and was later captured in Bolivia and executed with the help of the CIA. To most this sounds revolutionary, but you have to understand who he really was and that's a murdering false communist who over threw a country with lies and false promises which led to Cuba being the poor, shackled place that it is today.

Okay, I wont give you the entire Cuban history, but read this article which was written about this man, this shirt and the role it played in releasing the Colombian captives that have been in the news these past weeks. I think no matter how little you care, you will at least be educated enough not to sport this shirt and maybe educate someone else who will.

Sometimes people just need a little help. I know I always want to help the prideful Southern people who I meet in the grocery store who are extremely polite to me while decked out in full confederate flag attire/tattoos. Sometimes its not always that they don't care, sometimes they just don't know.

Heres the article...check it out.

Til Later,

9 comments:

Paul Thoreau said...

I think that Glenn Beck Must Have A Hole In His Head and that his CNN article requires some Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes.

Rick said...

While you're in the hating mood, toss Glenn Beck in the pile with the Che-Shirt. "Glenn Beck does not care about black people"...or brown people, or poor people, or 911 victims' families, or Katrina victims, or Muslim Senators.


I'm kidding. We should hate no one but Glenn Beck makes it very difficult for me to hold to that.

Dawntoya and Adam said...

Rick,
This blog has nothing to do with what I think about Glenn Beck, but rather what I have experienced during my time in Cuba with the people...he may "hate black people" but even idiots can be a reference point some days. So without veering off topic, that was really my point. Thanks for your comment.

Jane said...

Hi... I just wanted to say that I liked your explanation of why you dislike Che Guevara shirts better than Glenn Beck's. The tone of his article was so much "if you wear the wrong shirt, the terrorists win" that I think his message would be lost on the type of people who wear the shirts out of ignorance.

Bark said...

Great post! Mark and I laugh out loud at the way you ended it! How true that is!

The Ice House said...

Good stuff Dawn...its hard to go somewhere in the world and come back indifferent!!

Lauren Williams said...

hmm, thanks for posting this. i had no idea who that guy was and am glad i know a little bit more. very interesting.

Rick said...

Dawn, I apologies for getting off the subject. I absolutely understand the point you and Beck are making about being uninformed and blindly following trends. I was that guy in high school. I wore red, gold and green. I had medallions with the Lion of Judah image, I had Marley t's and listened to reggae as if the God they sang of was the God that I worshiped also. It took a Jamaican friend of mine to enlighten me on Rastafarianism, Selassie worship and Marcus Garvey to realize how foolish I was. I'll post my anti-Beck speak on someone esle's comment section. Peace!

Benin said...

Very interesting piece. Thanks for writing it. It takes some courage to put a piece like this together and reference Glen Beck within that same post.

Indeed it is quite thought provoking.

Curiously, Beck and I are in agreement on something. I have never understood the fascination with some of these socialist figures either.

Although I must say that the topic of Che Guevara brings up mixed feelings in me. This is partly due to the fact that even though I entirely disagree with the notion of state ownership, statism, and etc. Cuba/Guevara did make a mark in history by helping countries such as Angola to escape from apartheid.

One of the funny things about life is that as humans we all have our flaws-just like Che did. Often one flaw tends to contradict the other, which is why I am not surprised that Glen Beck was able to find some of Che's literature where he had aired views about Black people that would seem to contradict what Guevarra projected while in the Congo.

I guess what it boils down to is that at the end of the day, as you have pointed out in your post and Glen Beck too, it is good to not accept things at face value. Folks are still even today rocking those shirts like their going outta style without really stopping to think is that really someone they'd want to aspire to be in every way.

There seems to be this tendency in our human nature that causes us to want to have something or someone to believe in. Its like humanity since its existence has been urgently seeking the very God who is right in front of us...who in fact created us...but being blinded by our sinful nature we seek God in things that are not of God.

At this point I could only see myself rocking a shirt with an image of Jesus on it, because His is perfection...and though I won't ever attain perfection it seems like our Lord is the ultimate measuring stick in terms of who everyone should aspire to be like.

Thanks for writing this very informative blog. It is so wonderful to see this-people within our generation with a thirst for Christ who are not afraid to put it out there and are not afraid to challenge accepted beliefs that do not conform with the Word.