Occupier guided by Che Guevara's Revolutionary Love

This morning's Tennessean featured several news articles and editorials on the Occupy Nashville movement. An article on the editorial page was accompanied by the above picture. Notice the sign taped to the tent quoting Che Guevara: "The True Revolutionary is guided by feelings of Love."

Che Guevara is the darling of American radicals and even moderate American liberals. Celebrities endorse him and wear his image, his picture adorns college dorm walls, and many young people wear his image around their neck and on t-shirts. He is trendy. In the 2008 Presidential campaign, there was a picture taken of an Obama Texas campaign headquarters with Che’s poster on the wall. To liberals, Che is cool.

Some year ago, I had a young teen relative of mine who for a long time wore a necklace with an image of Che Guevara around his neck. To maintain peace in the family I bite my tongue and avoided commenting. His parents are very liberal and I am sure they thought it was cool that their son wore the Che image. I thought it was as about as cool as if he was wearing a swastika or a Charles Manson medallion necklace. I wanted to ask them why they let their son wear an image a brutal mass murderer around his neck, but I knew it would just lead to ill will and would do no good.

If the Occupy Nashville participants is guided by love the same way Che Guevara was, what does that mean? Should that reassure or comfort us?

Che Guevara was one of Fidel Castro's top lieutenants and was a ruthless killer and instrumental in turning Cuba into a totalitarian prison island. He was second in command for a while after Castro took Cuba and fulfilled several roles in the new government. He was one of the architects of land reform and was president of the National Bank of Cuba and was instrumental in totally destroying the economy of Cuba. He established the Cuban secret police with help and guidance from the Soviet KGB.

He was a fanatical Stalinist. Had Che had the opportunity no doubt he would have rivaled Stalin who killed upwards of 20 million of his own people. He suppressed all descent and opposed freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, the right to protest, fair trials or any other rights not consistent with the most doctrinaire view of Communism. He tried to suppress rock music seeing it as an evil influence and he jailed people for being gay.

He was a sadistic killer who enjoyed torturing people. In his papers we find where he wrote, "I'm here in Cuba's hills, alive and thirsting for blood." In a letter to his father, he wrote, "I really like killing." He dealt harshly with anyone even suspected of disloyalty or lack of revolutionary zeal. Che's instructions to a subordinate on how to deal with a suspects was, "if in doubt, kill him."

Shortly after the overthrow of Batista, Guevara took responsibility for the executions of hundreds of former Batista officials. He ordered and organized the firing squads that killed hundreds. During the consolidation of power in Cuba, 14,000 Cubans were executed without fair trials and 500,000 Cubans were send to labor camps. That is the "great feeling of love" of a true revolutionary as practiced by Che Guevara.

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