[NYTr] Cuba has Proved that a Better World is Possible: US Activists

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

CubaNow - Jul 24, 2007
http://www.cubanow.net/global/loader.php?&secc=1&item=3031&cont=show.php

US Activists Say Cuba has Proved that a Better World is Possible

By Al Games

Cubanow.- CUBA has confirmed our conviction that a better world is
possible to achieve, and the United States has to change, said members
of the 38th Contingent of the US Venceremos Brigade, who are visiting
the Caribbean island.

Brigade members Bonny Massey, a social worker from New York; Edgar
Gomez, a university student and Erica Crenshaw, a university professor
from L.A., California issued a declaration on behalf of the 58-member
contingent, during a meeting at the Havana-based International Press
Center.

The declaration reads that since its foundation in 1969, the trips to
Cuba by contingents of the Venceremos Brigade have defied restrictions
imposed by the US economic blockade of the island and they have stood
as a genuine expression of solidarity and commitment to the struggle
aimed at putting an end to the “insane anti-Cuba policy unleashed by
Washington.”

Brigade members also condemned the Bush Plan and the silence by the US
mainstream media in the case of Fernando Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez,
Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Rene Gonzalez, the five Cuban
antiterrorist fighters, who have been held in US jails serving unjust
and extremely long sentences.

“We join our voices to the millions of people who support Cuba’s fair
cause. We feel honored for being part of this historic battle,” the
document reads.

WHAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MUST KNOW

Erica Crenshaw and Bonny Massey told Cuban and foreign reporters about
their trip to Cuba. Massey described his visit to the Caribbean island
as very instructive and added that most Americans do not know anything
about Cuban reality, since they are denied to know the truth about it.

“It is important to come and see and when we return home we should tell
others about the truth, what we have seen and experienced, in order to
help pull down this silence wall raised around Cuba,” said Crenshaw.

Cuba has the right to freely choose its destiny, while the US
government should abstain from interfering with the island’s internal
affairs and solve the so many problems we are facing at home instead,
said Massey who, as a social worker and resident of the Bronx, knows
that the “American dream” is for many a very sad nightmare
characterized by exclusion, injustice, inequality and poverty.

“I am one out of millions of Americans who have no medical insurance; I
became sick here and I immediately received primary health care and
medicines, everything for free, just as any Cuban citizen. Cubans share
everything they have with others, and even a group of American youths
have been granted scholarships by the Cuban government to study
medicine on the island,” said Massey.

“The truth is that my people are denied the truth about Cuba, but when
they know it the blockade will be ended, and we can and we must
contribute to it, not only by spreading such an unforgettable
experience but also defying the US travel ban, which violates a
constitutional right of the US people,” said the brigade member and
added that such a legitimate right will be the legal basis for the
members of the Venceremos Brigade to enter their country through the
Canadian border next July 28, since according to US travel
restrictions, they may face severe reprisal for having visited the
island and shared with the Cuban people, which include fines or even
prison terms.