The Miami Marlins should suspend Ozzie Guillen. A one-month suspension would send a powerful message that Guillen’s thoughtless remarks on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro will not be tolerated. A one-week suspension probably is more realistic.
Yes, we live in a free country, but the Constitution protects free speech only from restriction by the state and federal governments. The Marlins, a private entity, presumably can impose the penalty of their choice on Guillen, who is a management employee, not part of the players union. Still, I’m not confident the Marlins will take action, not when their expectations for the team are so high, not when they just opened their new ballpark.
Sorry, Guillen’s offense is bigger than any of that.
What did Guillen say about Castro?
This:
I normally cringe at politically correct overreactions, particularly in response to mindless, preposterous remarks from people who are just spouting off. But when Guillen told Time magazine, “I love Fidel Castro . . . I respect Fidel Castro . . .” well, that’s about as extreme and insensitive as it gets.
(snip)
I’m not sure even what Guillen was trying to say to Time — he apparently admires Castro for surviving 60 years when “a lot of people have wanted to kill him.” Whatever his point, it’s almost unthinkable that the manager of the Miami Marlins could say such a thing, particularly when he effectively acts as the spokesman for the team.
Oh dear. I'm not sure there are enough fainting couches to sustain the collective punditry collapse at this verbal violation of that is good and decent.
Look--I know people are still pissed that Cuba helped the Soviets invade the U.S. in Red Dawn, but we need to get over it.
I'm heartened that Rosenthal hates, really hates it when teh womenz and teh gayz are offended by something Rosenthal's buddies say and so he really, really hates teh political correctness. Except this time. When it's a politically incorrect view he doesn't like.
And naturally, Rosenthal demonstrates his complete lack of awareness about the various U.S. efforts to kill Castro, undermine his country's sovereignty and strangle the island economically for 60 years with his "Whatever his point was..." talk.
Unfortunately Guillen has already been made to apologize and worse might still happen for his daring to have an opinion at variance with the ruling media class, so we might not even gain what we sometimes refer to as a teachable moment about Cuba, Castro and U.S. policy.
