Hi Lonesome,

Again you make good points. Yes, Castro's Cuba was in good shape until the Warsaw pact collapsed and Russian aid dried up. It is unfortunate that the Eisenhower administration did not respond more favorably to Castro's visit to Washington in the first year after his overthrow of Batista. Eisenhower refused to see Castro, but Vice President Nixon had a brief meeting with him. Had the USA chosen to take a friendly attitude toward Castro at that time, Cuba would never have become a client state of the USSR. What a tragedy.

Castro was most eager to have normal relations with the USA intially, but the rich interests that ran Cuba under Batista pulled strings to make sure that would never happen. So it goes. The Russians must have been absolutely delighted by that turn of affairs.

Your point about Mexico is reasonably valid. I think that as long as there is a gross difference in the material levels of life between North America and the 3rd World we are going to have much distress and instability in the world. We could VOLUNTARILY reduce our bloated lifestyle and share a bit more of the world's bounty, couldn't we? Who wants to be first? If we did so, we would greatly benefit the whole world and nature as well.

In my case, I have kept my lifestyle a lot simpler than the typical North American middle-class person, but I still live like a king compared to most Cubans or Mexicans. I think about it a lot. What goes around comes around, and our present system is way out of balance in this world.

Yes, there are times when supporting a dictatorship has its rationale...given other conditions around that situation. That's why I presently support the Cuban government...on the whole...although I certainly see that it could be improved upon...and I hope that it will be.

The US Constitution itself was not hypocritical...it was its practical application by the overall American society that became at times hypocritical.

Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams were indeed brilliant men, with extraordinary vision...and I respect that vision entirely.

My condolences on losing your entire document to the accursed machine...this has happened to me on a few occasions, and it is enough to get a person mailing vile Irish curses in incomprehensible languages to "virtual" (if I may use that term) strangers...like Spaw. (LOL)