Finally some recognition for Gene Sharp

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It is great to see Gene Sharp on the front page of today’s New York Times and perhaps this belated recognition will spur some donations his way.  As the article points out, his Albert Einstein Institution is running on empty but still he manages to spread the word and shake the world.

When you consider the so-called Royal Family in Bahrain huddled inside their palaces as the tear gas wafts over the walls and Colonel Qadaffi lashing out at protesters as his secret police fill the overflowing prisons, it does indicate today’s bankruptcy of our political left/right labels. 

Since Gene Sharp is on the enemies list of the Burmese generals who are generally despised on the left, and has been denounced by Hugo Chavez who is often admired by the left and endlessly worshipped at Pacifica radio, you might ask for some more precision in political labeling.

Unlike fundamentalists, whether they are Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Marxist, Libertarian or Scientologist, I welcome deviations from the text and inconsistencies, otherwise known as the human factor.  I operate on the much simpler political theory of “would these assholes jail my friends?” And the answer is they all would.  Except perhaps for the Libertarians, who would bore them to death. 

With that in mind, I would like to invite you all to the UCLA/Hammer Forum in Westwood a week from today, Thursday February 24 at 7 PM for a free public forum on “Cuba After The Castros”.  Our speakers are a revolutionary compatriot of Castro’s, Max Lesnik, whose Miami newspaper was bombed eleven times by the fanatical Cuban exiles who have controlled our foreign policy like the tail of the junk yard dog wagging a giant poodle.  And joining him will be Annie Bardach, the acclaimed biographer of Castro and his regime.  She will offer a more critical view I suspect and I will learn a lot I expect, and so will the audience. 

So please come and ask questions, unless you are one of the 9/11 “truthers” who try to hijack these public events.  To them I offer a quote from Winston Churchill who described fanatics as “those who can’t change their mind and won’t change the subject”.