Today, President Bush will award the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to two extremely worthy individuals: Henry Hyde and Dr. Oscar Biscet. Aside from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, quite possibly our greatest living writer, it would close to impossible to find two better champions of human rights.
Biscet, a deeply Christian man and longtime democracy advocate, languishes in a Cuban prison. Recently, the president forcefully spoke on his behalf:
Cuba’s rulers promised individual liberty. Instead they denied their citizens basic rights that the free world takes for granted. In Cuba it is illegal to change jobs, to change houses, to travel abroad, and to read books or magazines without the express approval of the state. It is against the law for more than three Cubans to meet without permission. Neighborhood Watch programs do not look out for criminals. Instead, they monitor their fellow citizens — keeping track of neighbors’ comings and goings, who visits them, and what radio stations they listen to. The sense of community and the simple trust between human beings is gone….The socialist paradise is a tropical gulag. The quest for justice that once inspired the Cuban people has now become a grab for power. And as with all totalitarian systems, Cuba’s regime no doubt has other horrors still unknown to the rest of the world. Once revealed, they will shock the conscience of humanity. And they will shame the regime’s defenders and all those democracies that have been silent.
He’s absoutely right – and in the meantime, let us pray for the people of Cuba.
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