3aa1972a-83a3-4b48-a589-2265ab771c44-1052x615

Seattle High School Honors Fidel Castro with Vigil—Following a Long Democrat Tradition “A high school (in Seattle) hosted a candlelight vigil that honored Fidel Castro, who students were told was “martyred while working on behalf of advancing civil rights, social justice and decolonization,” reported Hot Air’s David Strom via the Jason Rantz radio show last week. You can’t make this up,” though Cuban exiles certainly appreciate misters Strom and Rantz outrage--it’s very easy to make up. In fact, there’s really no need to make it up. Because compared to many other honors and commemorations to Fidel Castro by prominent Democrats and celebrities, the Seattle high school gig comes across as relatively mild offense against human rights, national security and common sense. Let’s have a look at some and compare. But first, some perspective: The Castro regime (many of the same people running Cuba today) jailed and tortured political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin did during the Great Terror. They murdered more Cubans in their first three years in power than Hitler’s regime murdered Germans during their first six. And yet: “Fidel Castro could have been Cuba’s Elvis!” (Dan Rather) The Castro regime shattered — through mass-executions, mass-jailings, mass larceny and exile — virtually every family on the island of Cuba. Many opponents of the Castro regime qualify as the longest-suffering political prisoners in modern history, having suffered prison camps, forced labor and torture chambers for a period three times as long in Fidel Castro’s Gulag as Alexander Solzhenitsyn suffered in Stalin’s Gulag.