La-dee-friggin-da.
This was in the 1960s or 70s. She might feel differently now, and I might have the meaning wrong. But so many left-wing intellectuals over the years have idolized Che, who was an idealist, but he was also a cold-blooded killer.
Che had great ideals. He wanted to reduce the power of the imperialist USA and create a better life for peons and other working poor. He wanted to change the world. Who doesn't? But he killed more than a few men in Cuba, by his own hand, when he thought they were not loyal to the Revolution. His Revolution.
Times were different then, and Batista was a fairly bloody dictator. Still, Che was no Mahatma Gandhi, no Martin Luther King. He was a man with a gun.
In Bolivia, Che ordered a young recruit killed because he was weak and couldn't keep up with the other guerrillas. Do you admire that? I don't. Hell, that could've been Che himself when he was young. Che had asthma all his life and he struggled with it, sometimes having to be carried by his men. He was weak, too.
So Che was a left-wing idealist, but he was also a ruthless killer.
His photo does not hang on my wall. Never has, never will.
-- Roger
© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle
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