What the Moneo Affaire Can Teach Babalú

I am almost inclined to leave the last post up indefinitely since it has attracted 800 page views in less than 24 hours. There is obviously an ocean of ill-will towards George Moneo at Babalú, and since Val Prieto does not allow it to be vented there, it overflows into other channels. The Babalunians are still afraid to use their real names or monikers for fear of retaliation but their anger is real if masked.

It was in response to that widespread disaffection that Babalú has been forced against all its instincts except that of self-preservation to modify its most radical positions and allow a modicum of dissonance in its proverbial echo-chamber. No longer do we read at Babalú that Cubans on the island are cowards who need to be rendered in a pressure cooker or immersed in a bloodbath. No more are enemies of Cuban freedom like Barack Obama celebrated at Babalú while true friends like John McCain are raked over the coals. The obsessions of a few no longer frustrate the exertions of the many on behalf of Cuba. Those who lost their way have been set on the right path again, and those who would not follow that path have been told that they are free to follow any other elsewhere but not to mislead others under Babalú's banner.

If Val & Henry would also renounce their arbitrariness and deal fairly with all their readers rather than insult, alienate and finally silence them, if by their conduct they would attest to the sincerity of their attachment to pluralism and free speech, I should consider the year that I have spent admonishing them not to have been wasted and dedicate my own time to something more constructive than pointing out and restraining their puerilities.