Ya Viene Llegando...

Val over at Babalu has asked visitors to his blog to contemplate on the nearing end of a monster's life. Here are my thoughts:

One of the very first things I ever wrote that made me really flex my creative muscle was a short story in junior high that detailed the elaborate assassination of fidel castro.

Heavy duty stuff for a kid in his early teens: I wrote of the pilot whose last thoughts on his one-way mission were of the struggles of his parents and grandparents and of how his actions that day would echo freedom for his children.

I'll never forget that story. I had never before put to words my own thoughts and emotions regarding that tyrant; thoughts that, for the first time, went beyond mere echoes of my family's sentiments. You would think adults - teachers and family - would be concerned that this child wrote about ending a life. But although I scribed fidel's fiery death with a previously un-tapped passion, they understood that the story wasn't about murder. No; the story was about the destruction of a symbol and the end of a darkness that had smothered and crippled an entire people.

And now as we approach that moment - with less action but no less drama - my eager anticipation and illimitable rage race toward an apex that not even the sobering reality of an uncertain future can temper.

casro's death will only be the first step toward a free and stable Cuba; but on the day of that joyous step, I will bask in its warm justice and toast its bubbly satisfaction.