Kal-El and Miguel - battling empire from planet Seattle
by Saab Lofton
One of the first things I did when I got back to Seattle was attend an event organized in part by the good people of ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism): On Saturday May 20th, 2006 at Victor Steinbrueck Park, there were speakers demanding, among other things, that we the people end the hostile, economic campaigns against Cuba and Venezuela, allow Americans to travel freely to Cuba and shut down America’s gulag at Guantanamo. As the old expression goes, the pot can’t call the kettle black, which is to say no American is in a sufficiently moral position to talk trash about Castro’s regime so long as the Bush regime is catching the ire of Amnesty International with its deeds at Gitmo (especially since it’s on Cuban soil). And as far as Venezuela goes, hell, Dubya wishes he had Hugo Chavez’s numbers insofar as polls and elections …
I was even allowed some time on the mike by the event’s organizers something I’ll always be grateful for. Since my award-winning newspaper column fell victim to corporate censorship in Las Vegas, I’ve become increasingly desperate for an audience, and though I only had three minutes to speak, I reveled in the opportunity just the same.
As I stood on that grassy hill behind the Pike Place Market, I thought back to all the times Lou Dobbs CNN’s version of FOX’s Bill O’Reilly claimed immigrants should wave American flags during their marches earlier this year. As Dobbs asked CNN correspondent Peter Viles on March 27th, “Did you have the opportunity to ask them [pro-immigrant marchers] why they are waving a Mexican flag when they are talking about U.S. rights?” I thought back to how I’ve been wanting to bring the following up ever since Dobbs got under my skin and I went plumb off (this is the speech I gave paraphrased from memory):
Instead of pandering to ignorant patriots by waving American flags, those protesting for immigrant rights should start wearing Superman T-shirts since the most famous, the most popular fictional character in human history is an illegal alien! At NO time did Smallville’s Ma and Pa Kent call the I.N.S. and say they found baby Kal-El in a starship … if a Mexican baby sailed north via the Rio Grande into Texas, was found by a sterile, white Texan couple and if said couple told the LIE that this was their biological child, THEY’D GO TO JAIL!!
In fact, since we’re all members of the human race (Mexico is another country, NOT another planet), the only truly interracial couple is Superman and Lois Lane problem is, all too many don’t see it that way since both of them can pass for white …
Just as there are open borders across the European Union, so too should there be open borders amidst the Americas. Such a dynamic would, among many great things, negate the evil embargo against Cuba we just have to get white supremacists like the Minutemen over their collective fear of their daughters coming home with Miguel or Horhe …
And just as it’d be extremely hypocritical for any of those Minutemen to be in line to see Superman Returns this summer, I better not catch them enjoying any of that cheap, Citgo oil President Hugo Chavez has been good enough to share with the poor either! Hands off Cuba and Venezuela!
I’m proud to say I got quite an ovation from the crowd at Victor Steinbrueck Park that day. I was disappointed, however, that the crowd itself was sparse and seemingly more interested in the beautiful view than in this important event. At one point, some good ol boy stormed through the park spewing something about how we wouldn’t be free to have such an event in Cuba. Thing is, what’s the point of being allowed to speak if you can’t afford an advertising budget sufficient enough to compete with, say, CNN’s Lou Dobbs? If it wasn’t for that flier I just happened to chance upon, I never would’ve known about the event. Can you imagine if Dobbs had to rely on a flier ..?
If the Pacific Northwest was truly deserving of its post-Battle of Seattle reputation, the Hands Off Cuba/Venezuela event would’ve been far more publicized. The burden shouldn’t fall solely on the organizers since this qualifies as news maybe not front page news, but news just the same. The next time ANSWER sends the Seattle Times a press
release, the state of Washington’s paper of record will hopefully take it seriously.
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