Yesterday I reported on a celebration of fidel castro’s birthday that was to be held in Harlem, which is, by all accounts, a predominantly “minority” populated area in New York. Some of the organizers were latinos and others, like Pastors for Peace, were of African-American descent.

Needless to say, I received a couple of very irate and somewhat profane emails taking me to task for “criticizing my own” (read: Latinos and minorities) in such a manner. This despite the fact that I quoted, specifically, where one of the celebration’s organizers refered to the Cuban-American community as “worms.” (The correct term would be the Spanish “gusano” which was the epithet of choice, yelled in unison, when my family was pelted with bottles and rocks and anything else that could be thrown as we left castro’s Cuba.)

Those of you that came here for your news during the immigration protests a few months back may already know my personal opinions on this “criticizing my own” thing as Michelle quoted them here and here.

Unfortunately, fidel castro and socialism adulation is not unique to minorities. There are plenty of “white” Americans that suffer from that disease. There are the Hollywood set: the Kevin Costners, the Steven Spielbergs and the Oliver Stones. There are the Cindy Sheehans and Code Pinkers. There are the Noam Chomsky-ites. The list is heartbreakingly long. You’ll find plenty of examples in the archives of this blog and Babalu as well as in Michelle’s “Unhinged” and David Horowitz’s “The Professors” to name just a few. It’s not as much craving for socialism but sheer, unbridled anti-Americanism.

If I needed proof of the above, I need go no further than this from the San Francisco Sentinel titled “Happy Birthday, Fidel! San Franciscans honor the life of the world’s longest reigning revolutionary leader.” If you can stomach it, I urge you to scroll through the page linked above. What you’ll find, other than the fact that some people live in Lala Land, is that anti-Americanism comes in all shapes and cultures and colors and sizes.

I’ve coined a term for people like the ones in the San Francisco and Harlem celebrating fidel castro’s birthday: Vicarious Communists (or Marxists, or Socialist or fidelistas. The terms are interchangeable.)

The unfortunate result of the actions of these Vicarious Communists, like the poetry reading, guitar strumming, lyrical dancing, America bashing, all is well and beautiful in fragrant in fields of flowers folks in the San Francisco link above is that while they use their freedom of expression and thought, as is their right as Americans, there are people in countries like Cuba who suffer the consequences. There are people who have no freedom of expression, they have no freedom of thought, they have no freedom of association. It is they who pay the price of the anti-American Americans.

It is, for some, quite easy to love a fidel castro from afar, but it’s a whole different ballgame for those who have to endure the “world’s longest reigning revolutionary leader.”