Remembering a non-violent ripple.
On April 9, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia on the fiftieth anniversary of the
funeral procession for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I took part in the March For Humanity. Over the previous week
numerous events were held to mark the 50 years since a sniper's
bullet took his life. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.,
like Mohandas Gandhi before him twenty years earlier, was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis Tennessee at 6:01pm.
We are in the midst of a moment of great turmoil with a pandemic, mass protests for racial justice, and riots organized by radicals with other objectives, some are Marxist Leninists, others Maoists, others are Neo-Nazis, Klu Klux Klan and a long etcetera,
These have also been years of great political polarization, and the danger arises of not looking at the person we disagree with as a fellow human being.
This was why the March for Humanity was and remains important. It is also why activists of all political stripes working for the common good need to hang on to non-violence, respect for the rule of law, and where a law is unjust then challenge it with civil disobedience as a last resort, and when possible democratic norms and procedures.
This is not passivity but creative resistance that, unlike violence, preserves our humanity, and it leaves unlikely but positive ripples always.
In the struggle against dictatorship in Cuba it was the internal opposition that first took up nonviolence as a method to resist injustice without becoming unjust. It was the nonviolent opposition that confronted a regime rooted in hatred without hating but were followed by other organizations, including one that engaged with The King Center.
Brothers to the Rescue (Hermanos al Rescate) is a grassroots movement founded in May 1991 in response to the death of a fifteen year old named Gregorio Pérez Ricardo who had died fleeing Cuba on a raft only to die of exposure and dehydration. The movement was funded by the community through donations in order to carry out a nonviolent constructive program saving the lives of Cuban rafters before they died of dehydration or starvation on the high seas in normal rafts.
Brothers to the Rescue actively collaborated with both The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia and Gene Sharp of the Albert Einstein Institution. They conducted nonviolent trainings in South Florida and invited members of the Cuban Exile community. I took part in those trainings, and they made a great impact on me.
The non-violent group conducted more than 2,400 aerial search missions. These resulted in the rescue of more than 4,200 men, women and children ranging in age from a five day old infant to a man 79 years of age.
Sadly, Brothers to the Rescue was dealt a terrible blow on February 24, 1996 when two of its planes were blow to bits in the Florida Straits by Cuban MiGs while searching for rafters killing four humanitarians.
A spy network sent by Havana had gathered information on the organization that contributed to the killings of Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.
Now a film production seeks to twist this history in the service of Cuban communist propaganda, and the spouse of Jose Basulto, Rita Basulto, is asking for help over Facebook and the request is reproduced below. Brothers to the Rescue in Spanish is Hermanos al Rescate (HAR) and this is the acronym she uses for the organization in the message below.
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| Coretta Scott King and Jose Basulto of Brothers to the Rescue |
We are in the midst of a moment of great turmoil with a pandemic, mass protests for racial justice, and riots organized by radicals with other objectives, some are Marxist Leninists, others Maoists, others are Neo-Nazis, Klu Klux Klan and a long etcetera,
These have also been years of great political polarization, and the danger arises of not looking at the person we disagree with as a fellow human being.
This was why the March for Humanity was and remains important. It is also why activists of all political stripes working for the common good need to hang on to non-violence, respect for the rule of law, and where a law is unjust then challenge it with civil disobedience as a last resort, and when possible democratic norms and procedures.
This is not passivity but creative resistance that, unlike violence, preserves our humanity, and it leaves unlikely but positive ripples always.
In the struggle against dictatorship in Cuba it was the internal opposition that first took up nonviolence as a method to resist injustice without becoming unjust. It was the nonviolent opposition that confronted a regime rooted in hatred without hating but were followed by other organizations, including one that engaged with The King Center.
Brothers to the Rescue (Hermanos al Rescate) is a grassroots movement founded in May 1991 in response to the death of a fifteen year old named Gregorio Pérez Ricardo who had died fleeing Cuba on a raft only to die of exposure and dehydration. The movement was funded by the community through donations in order to carry out a nonviolent constructive program saving the lives of Cuban rafters before they died of dehydration or starvation on the high seas in normal rafts.
Brothers to the Rescue actively collaborated with both The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia and Gene Sharp of the Albert Einstein Institution. They conducted nonviolent trainings in South Florida and invited members of the Cuban Exile community. I took part in those trainings, and they made a great impact on me.
The non-violent group conducted more than 2,400 aerial search missions. These resulted in the rescue of more than 4,200 men, women and children ranging in age from a five day old infant to a man 79 years of age.
Sadly, Brothers to the Rescue was dealt a terrible blow on February 24, 1996 when two of its planes were blow to bits in the Florida Straits by Cuban MiGs while searching for rafters killing four humanitarians.
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| Glamour and glitz versus the cold hard reality. |
Now a film production seeks to twist this history in the service of Cuban communist propaganda, and the spouse of Jose Basulto, Rita Basulto, is asking for help over Facebook and the request is reproduced below. Brothers to the Rescue in Spanish is Hermanos al Rescate (HAR) and this is the acronym she uses for the organization in the message below.
"Dear FB family and friends,
Since the movie The Wasp Network started showing on Netflix, we have received numerous calls and comments. The movie is a propaganda vehicle for the Cuban government, full of lies and misrepresentations. Among the lies, my husband Jose Basulto never introduced Roque to Mas Canosa who wasn’t even present at the party for the wedding as shown in the movie. Roque never flew as a pilot for HAR. Rene Gonzalez was separated from HAR by Basulto after it was reported to him that someone had seen Rene (who was flying with another organization) lying face down by agents of DEA.
The movie wants to portray HAR as a terrorist group when nothing is further from the truth since it was promoting and organizing seminars about bringing changes in Cuba thru Non-Violence.
It is disrespectful to, not only to HAR, but to the entire exile community, the pilots of 19 different nationalities who flew with Hermanos (and who were volunteers-never paid- like the movie says), to the observers who flew many missions, to the members of the press who flew with HAR (never charged).
The Cuban government and its allies have been very good at promoting its lies for years. WE, need to promote our TRUTH.
Please sign the petition from Change.org requesting the removal of the movie from Netflix and share it with others. https://www.change.org/p/netflix-brasil-queremos-que-netflix-elimine-de-su-cartelera-la-pel%C3%ADcula-la-red-avispa-por-da%C3%B1os-y-perjPlease share this information with others to set the record straight, and to sign the petition. Let us also remember the humanity of our adversaries while we pursue truth and justice.
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