OPINION:
Perhaps nothing better illustrates the vast discrepancy between the promises of communism and its reality than the responses on display over the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro (“Canadian PM Justin Trudeau hails Fidel Castro as ’remarkable leader,’” Web, Nov. 28). In Miami, Cuban exiles, having fled their homeland on inner tubes and by other creative means, banged pots, honked horns and danced in the streets over news of the dictator’s death. Meanwhile, in Hollywood, on football fields and in the halls of academe, actors, athletes, educators and a handful of progressive politicians mourned a man whom they had only met during carefully scripted visits to the island nation. The first group understands the reality of communism; the second, only its promises.
And the promise of communism is that of an idyllic, Utopian state where equality, justice and fairness have conquered the greed, envy and ambition found in other nations. Communism is innately spiritual in that it taps into a human desire for a just and equitable world. The author of this desire is God himself. But communism is atheistic and it encroaches on what only God can deliver by promising to build a heaven on earth apart from Him.
The pride and arrogance that are foundational to communism only ensure the poverty and enslavement that mark its reality. God will not be mocked. And no one better understands this than the people who are now rejoicing in the streets of Little Havana.
THOMAS M. BEATTIE
Mt. Vernon, Va.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.