Suicide is wrong, so I hope and pray that independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas will soon end end his hunger strike, preferably after the government comes goes at least part of the way in meeting his demands Internet access.
I don't like his method of protest, but that does not diminish my respect for the man, who began a hunger strike Jan. 31, after Cuban officials blocked him from using e-mail to transmit his stories.
Fariñas is a man of courage and dignity that anyone who says they love freedom should admire. Despite tremendous physical pain, he is sticking with his principles — for himself, and for Cuba.
EFENews, which has the latest update on Fariñas, reports that he is threatening to pull out the IV tubes delivering him nourishment if officials at the hospital he is at don't move him to a room where he can receive visitors.
"He's in a very delicate situation and there could be complications at any time," Fariñas' mother, Alicia Hernandez, told EFE. She said she was convinced that her son was going to push through with his hunger strike "to the end" despite attempts by his relatives and friends to try and convince him to abandon it.
"As a mother, I can't agree that he exchange his life and his family for the Internet, which is a secondary thing, but he says that it's his principle, his decision," she said.
"We need him alive, not dead," she added.
The choice to live or die is Fariñas'.
And the choice to save his life or let him die is Fidel Castro's.
I pray that both men make the right choice.
(H/T to La Ventanita at Wall Street Cafe.)
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