Risking Your Life for Freedom
Today’s Photo of the Day, of a 10-person Cuban refugee raft that washed up on San Pedro Reef in Belize, should be a reminder to everyone just how good we’ve got it in the United States — and just how bad people have had it in Cuba under the tyrant Fidel Castro for more than 40 years. If we citizens of the United States don’t like it here, we’re always free to take up residence elsewhere. But if you’re a Cuban, you’re nothing more than a prisoner because, in addition to not having freedom of speech or assembly, the poor bastards don’t even have the freedom to travel. Instead, they must risk their lives, as 10 did on this pathetic raft, to try to escape the ‘Worker’s Paradise’. Six of them were still in the hospital at the time this photo was taken.
The shot is the work of Rod Williams of the Alameda-based Catalina 42 Azure, who just happened to be in Belize at the time. "My wife Cheri and I spent a wonderful 10 days sailing in Belize with our good friends Fred McElroy and Alice Heiman of the Tahoe City-based Catalina 270 Grand Cru. We chartered Aubisque, a 47-ft Lagoon catamaran owned and skippered by longtime San Francisco sailor and racer Cliff Wilson. He was assisted by gourmet chef Zoe Ryznar, so we didn’t have to do any navigation, deck work, or cooking! We had so much fun that I almost had to put a gun to my own head to make me come home!"