POST SCRIPTS

** Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R-FL]: Mr. Speaker, today I rise in memory of Eusebio Penalver Mazorra, who was one of the longest serving political prisoners and a man who President George W. Bush called a Cuban patriot. I would like to recognize his widow, Francis Martinez, who is with us today. *** In Miami, Penalver led a group called "Plantados until Freedom and Democracy Comes to Cuba," whose five founding members each spent more than 20 years in Castro's prisons. Eusebio himself spent 28 years in jail. *** Penalver was a Cuban political prisoner who fought long and hard against Castro's tyranny. **

The relative obscurity of Eusebio Penalver is important because it serves as an example of modern day journalism’s failures. It highlights how disinterested our elite media has become in reporting accurate unbiased news. His untold story is an example of the distorted picture created when news is slanted and spun and when pertinent information is ignored or treated as insignificant. This man’s suffering, his bravery and commitment to freedom, was not celebrated in mainstream media. Given the status, fame, and praise lavished on Nelson Mandela the question naturally arises, why are we not similarly familiar with this brave man? Could it be politics?

These aren’t the only questions surrounding the unheralded life of this man, questions that failed to interest modern day reporters:

“Jeremiah Wright's Cuban Friends,” by Humberto Fontova – TownHall

** Was it remotely conceivable that someone with Jeremiah's Wright's worldview and connections had somehow avoided a pilgrimage to the world capitol of Yankee-hatred, to worship and commiserate with its high priests? *** Not a chance. Reverend Wright was part of Revered Jesse Jackson's 300 person entourage to Havana in 1984. “Viva Fidel!” bellowed Reverend Jackson while concluding his speech at the University of Havana. “Viva Che Guevara!..Long Live our cry of Freedom!” *** ...this was summer of 1984, so at the time the world's longest-suffering black political prisoner suffered his incarceration and tortures in stoic defiance. “Nigger!” taunted his jailers between tortures. “We pulled you down from the trees and cut off your tail!” *** I do not refer to Nelson Mandela. No, this prisoner was being tortured a few miles away from the Revs. Jackson, Wright and their entourage of black American luminaries. The prisoner was a black Cuban named Eusebio Penalver and he was being tortured by Reverend Wright's gracious hosts. Mr Penalver's incarceration and tortures stretched to 29 years which makes him the longest-suffering black political prisoner in modern history, surpassing Nelson Mandela's record in time behind bars and probably doubling the horrors suffered by Mandela during this period. **

This story represents an important piece of history so I hope you will read the entire TownHall article.

Given our recent presidential election, given the men, including Rev. Wright, who helped to shape Barack Obama’s world view, and given President Barack Obama’s recent decision to selectively, and irresponsibly, release CIA interrogation information, it is revealing that this bit of history has been left out of the political discussion. These events, taken together, weave a tapestry that’s been left on the newsroom floor simply to further the agenda of the left. It might be instructive at this moment to also notice the kind of information the elite media does regularly report. Black History Month, 2006 as reported by NewsMax:

“Black History Month Ignores Genuine Black Heroes - Humberto Fontova” – NewsMax

** February, known lately as "Black History Month," has come and gone while the mainstream media showcased quite a cast of worthies for us. *** Malcolm X didn't mince words. "I'm not an American!" he sputtered. "America is a nightmare! America practices slavery! The white man is the common enemy!" Naturally, Time magazines heralded him to high heavens during Black History Month. *** Harry Belafonte lays it on the line: "Bush is the greatest tyrant in the world – the greatest terrorist in the world!" To commemorate Black History Month, Viacom's TV Land network conducted a reverential one-hour chat with Belafonte. *** Stokley Carmichael, was quite explicit: "Black people should shoot the hell out of all the white people!" Carmichael got his kudos and high-fives from National Public Radio. *** The unenlightened might consider Nelson Mandela an ingrate when, a week after President Bush awarded him America's highest governmental award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he bellowed: "If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America!" As you might guess, during Black History Month, hosannas to Mandela were all over the place. I can't list them all. **

Eusebio Penalver’s Wikipedia page is a short paragraph long, further illustrating his obscurity.

** Eusebio Peñalver Mazorra has been cited as the worlds longest-jailed black political prisoner in the 20th century. He was 28 years in prison, longer than Nelson Mandela, incarnated and tortured by the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba.[1][2][3] *** “He suffered the most brutal tortures as a result of continuous harassment for 24 hours a day and seven days a week, as he describes in an autobiographical piece, tortures against which he built a shield of virile resistance, honoring his condition of “plantado”. In a 1999 interview with The Associated Press, he defined a "plantado" as a person who firmly plants his feet while struggling for freedom and democracy in Cuba.[1]” *** President of the United States referred to him as a patriot.[4] *** He was born in Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, Cuba.[4] **

Sometime in the early sixties television news became a medium to be marketed. It was glamorized, packaged and sold just like any other television show and within a few years took up an hour and a half of prime programming time. What had been fifteen minutes of the days current events now became just another wave in a vast sea of similar magazine style programming. Not quite fiction but certainly not, "just the fact, ma'am," the voices that had railed against “the establishment” in the sixties now embodied the mindset of a majority of journalists and talking heads that covered the airwaves as headline news. In the last ten years “reality” shows have also entered the fray blurring the lines even more…and America hasn’t been the same since.

Americans, we are on our own! We must investigate and seek information for ourselves and, when appropriate, we must also engage in counter political activism. Am I cheerleading? Am I asking you to be “subversive”? Well if being subversive means restoring our nation to the ideals of her founding, you bet your...bippy I am!