My Heroes – Ernesto “Che” Guevara
This has to be one of my more controversial “Heroes”. Ernesto “Che” Guevara was a medical doctor. While still a student he took two rides through much of Latin America seeing first hand the intense poverty of most of the people.
He witnessed first hand the assassination of a democratically elected President by CIA backed assassins. He witnessed first hand the tragedy of people who lived in fear under military dictatorships. He lived in a time when people who yearned for basic freedoms were denied a voice by governments backed by the United States of America.
In those times, those who rebelled against oppressive regimes could not count on the United States of America for support. Even when the people of Hungary rebelled against the repressive communist regime in the 1950s the United States of America did nothing when the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies put it down with tanks.
Ernesto “Che” Guevara refused to accept the status quo and until his death fought for the people.
I fail to understand why you think this man is so great…..and to be honest, I don’t really want to know. Any one who thinks that way…scares the shit right out of me.
Yes. Che was a good man who really wanted justice. The revolution in Cuba was a step forward for the people of that country. I would go to Cuba in a heart beat for better medical care than I have access to in America. Yes, they have a way to go. As do we. How typical is is that some one says “I do not want to Know”…. That sums it all up nicely.
Inspiring post, Mr. Sawyer.
Ernesto “Che” Guevara was a sham.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3606309/Che-the-murdering-savage-is-lauded-yet-again.html
Link – Above all, Guevara’s enduring status in film and populist imagery is proof of mankind’s pathetic inability to recognise evil when its guise is beauty and its lie is love…
Che Guevara image – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLJ7metgLSI
John Hume was a real leader and hero – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hume
I’ll tell you something, Mr Sawyer. I had left the short comment that I left above, intent on writing a counter blog to yours…. I have had a bias against Che since I’ve first heard of him. Nothing to do with politics, but more to do with his propensity for executing folks ‘in prodigal numbers and for dubious reasons.’ Truth is, there’s no way I could know the details or frame of mind he had during any of those killings- I cannot stand in judgment without being wrong. I just always have a instinctive contempt for anyone that is portrayed as such a cold blooded killer… because I myself cannot imagine it. Not the killing so much as the ability to do it so easily.
Anyway, so I went to educate myself as best I could, in order to not come under prepared. I encountered conflicting accounts, and recognized the elements of ‘spin’ right away. The more I researched, the more I realized that this was without doubt a man to be admired, and very likely an honorable warrior too. I am very particular about the designation of ‘hero’… But let me just say that if I was walking down a commissary sidewalk on some military base, and I was in uniform and encountered Che, I’d be inclined to salute.
Later man