Uncommon Sense

Rosa Maria Paya's message: Let the people of Cuba decide their future

Rosa Maria Paya

The struggle for freedom in Cuba is not for anyone afraid of what appear to be insurmountable odds or without the faith to believe that they will eventually prevail. After more than 56 years of communist dictatorship, winning Cuba's freedom is not a task for the meek or the faithless.

Rosa Maria Paya is neither.

She is committed to change in Cuba but not change for change's sake or as she puts it, a "fraudulent change" -- for example, economic "reforms and and the normalization of relations with the U.S. -- that leaves the dictators in power. But a change based on the will of the Cuban people.

To determine that that will, Paya and others have launched the CubaDecide campaign, which seeks a national plebiscite to ask Cubans what they want for their nation and their futures. Specifically, it wants to put on a ballot this question:

"Are you in favor of free, just and pluralistic elections that give all Cubans the right to be nominated and elected democratically; the freedom of expression and of the press; the right to organize freely into political parties and other social organizations? Yes or No?"

CubaDecide is extension of her late father Oswaldo Paya's Varela Project campaign, which in 2003 presented to the Castro regime thousands of petition signatures demanding a similar referendum. The regime responded with the "black spring" crackdown that left several Varela Project organizers -- but not Paya -- in prison.

Rosa Maria, 26, assumed her father's mantle after he died in a suspicious car crash in 2012 that his daughter and others have blamed on the Cuban secret police.

Paya and other CubaDecide organizers were in Tampa this weekend to debut their campaign in the United States.

“Everyone needs to help us exert pressure and spread the word that Cubans have the right to choose their government,” Paya told the Tampa Tribune before her visit. “No matter your party or political affiliation, this is about supporting real change in Cuba.”

Before a full house at Casa de Cuba, Paya laid out her simple but very powerful message for the Castro dictatorship and the world: Cubans must be free to decide their future.

Paya is not a wild-eye idealist. She understands the magnitude of the challenge -- she knows what happened to her father and to many of his followers. And she understands that the Castro regime is not about to allow a national referendum on a question whose answer could mean their demise.

But as she repeated many times, change will not happen unless she and other Cubans demand it. If not know, when? If not us, who?

Like her father before her, Rosa Maria has a passionate belief in the Cuban people and that if given a real chance to decide their future, Cuba's fate will be much brighter than to which it has been condemned for more than 56 years.

For more about the CubaDecide campaign, including how you can help go here.

And to see more photos from Paya's presentation at Casa Cuba, go here.

Watch her presentation at Casa Cuba here:

On 9/11/11, I remember Maureen Olson

Maureen L. "Rene" Olson

 

On Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I remember Maureen L. Olson, who died at the World Trade Center in New York.

I first wrote about Maureen in September 2006, as part of the "2,996" project to commemorate the fifth anniversary. As I wrote then, the true impact of the tragedy is not measured by the body count, but by how each individual death affected their family, their friends and others they left behind. They each deserve equal tribute, and not to be remembered as just a number.

Four years ago, this is what I wrote about Maureen Olson:

 For the past two months, ever since I signed up for ”2,996” project, I have thought about Maureen L. Olson every time I read or heard about 9/11 or when I went to see ”World Trade Center.”

The loss of life five years ago Monday was enormous, but the tragedy is even more profound when you consider the impact of just one death that day — that of Maureen L. Olson.

Christopher and Maeve Olson, high school students in 2001, lost their mother.

No more birthdays.

No more Christmases.

John Eric Olson lost his wife.

No more walks through the streets of her beloved Manhattan.

"We met in 1979 on a blind date in New York," her husband told the New York Times in 2001.

At that time, "She lived on 65th Street and First Avenue. But in the 1960’s and 1970’s she lived up in the high East 90’s.

"In the past year or so she had been looking around to move back to the city. I am sure we would have."

Marian Masone, who first met Maureen more than 30 years at Manhattan Marymount College, lost a dear friend.

"Her sister and my sister were two years ahead of us,” Masone told the New York Times. “We even dropped out of college the same day, in the middle of our junior year. Eventually, we both went back."

Maureen’s colleagues at Marsh Inc., a risk and insurance firm at the World Trade Center, lost a trusted co-worker. Maureen was a business librarian for the company.

“Maureen was a good friend and colleague,” Bill Gardner wrote on a tribute page for Maureen. “She was always there for me when I ‘needed something’ from the Info Center. I was always there for her when she became inundated with questions she didn't know how to answer relating to Workers Compensation from all over the Marsh system. I miss you and our phone conversations.”

Maureen L. Olson, who would have turned 51 on Oct. 12, 2001, was like the rest of us. She loved her family. She loved her work. She loved her life. How do you measure the loss? I do not know.

But one thing is certain — it is vital that we never forget Maureen L. Olson and every other life that was lost that day.

We owe it to them.

And to those closest to them that they left to remember.

For more about Maureen, read a Sept. 19, 2001, profile in Newsday.

And to see her tribute on the 9/11 Victims Memorial Quilt, go here.

If you knew Maureen, please leave a comment.

For more on Olson, click here.

On 9/11/01, I remember Justin Zhao

On a 9/11 anniversary a few years ago, I wrote this about a young man killed at World Trade Center:

  Jie Yao Justin Zhao

Justin Zhao was like me somewhat in one respect: We are both the children of immigrants, our parents uprooting from their homelands — mine from Cuba, his from China — and coming to America to build a better life.

And that is exactly what Zhao did, for himself and for his family.

The New York Times published a brief profile of Zhao a little more than three months after he died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001:

Justin Zhao earned good grades as a student and never rebelled, even as a teenager. After starting to work for Aon as a computer technician, Mr. Zhao, 26, frequently gave his parents money and always bought them cakes and fruits.

This year was the first time that the Zhaos found their financial burden lightened since they immigrated to the United States 15 years ago from Guangzhou, China. At first, they lived in a basement apartment in Woodside, Queens. The father, Qixuan Zhao, waited on tables in Chinese restaurants, and the mother, Shuzhen Zhao, sewed clothes in Chinese garment factories.

Then earlier this year, their sons, Jimmy and Justin, both City University of New York graduates, found well-paying jobs. Suddenly, taking vacations and enjoying retirement were no longer preposterous goals.

"But who knew this would happen?" said Jimmy Zhao, Justin's older brother. "We just cannot accept the reality. We are still in denial."

Many immigrants' dreams died on 9/11. Dozens, if not hundreds of those killed in New York were foreign citizens, united only by their faith in America, the faith the terrorists tried, but failed, to kill.

Miguel Rafael Cabrera Montoya, Alexis Kuan Jerez, Víctor Campa Almenares, Nivaldo Amelo Ramírez, José Enrique Martínez Ferrer, Alexei Aguirresabal Rodríguez,and Bismarck Mustelier Galán, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 9/11/11

UPDATE, Nov. 16, 2011 -- Six of the seven prisoners were released in November 2011.

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Leave it to the Castro dictatorship to twist the language to enforce its repression of the peaceful opposition in Cuba.

Here's the latest example, via Net for Cuba and Babalu Blog:

On Wednesday, September 7, 2011, the families of the seven members of the Cuban Resistance who were violently arrested on August 28, 2011 in the city of Palma Soriano, were told by Castro regime officials that the activists will be jailed in what they referred to as "provisional incarceration."

The activists, who belong to the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance Front and other resistance organizations, were beaten before being arrested during a raid on the home of opposition member Marino Antomarchit Rivero, where activities were taking place in support of the Ladies in White. That activity counted on the participation of several resistance organizations in eastern Cuba, among them the Patriotic Union of Cuba.

According to eyewitness accounts, repressive forces launched tear gas canisters through the window of the home and then entered wearing gas masks while the home's inhabitants were coughing and vomiting due to the effects of the gas. The provincial prosecutor for Santiago de Cuba has issued a prison order for Miguel Rafael Cabrera Montoya, Alexis Kuan Jerez, Víctor Campa Almenares, Nivaldo Amelo Ramírez, José Enrique Martínez Ferrer, Alexei Aguirresabal Rodríguez and Bismarck Mustelier Galán, alleging they are guilty of public disorder and creating a public commotion that "obligated" the police to intervene. This account is a fabrication that is being used at this moment to build a case for an unjust trial without due process for these peaceful defenders of human rights in eastern Cuba.

On 9/11/10, I remember Maureen Olson

Maureen L. "Rene" Olson On Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I remember Maureen L. Olson, who died at the World Trade Center in New York. I first wrote about Maureen in September 2006, as part of the "2,996" project to commemorate the fifth anniversary. As I wrote then, the true impact of the tragedy is not measured by the body count, but by how each individual death affected their family, their friends and others they left behind. They each deserve equal tribute, and not to be remembered as just a number. Four years ago, this is what I wrote about Maureen Olson:

For the past two months, ever since I signed up for ”2,996” project, I have thought about Maureen L. Olson every time I read or heard about 9/11 or when I went to see ”World Trade Center.”

The loss of life five years ago Monday was enormous, but the tragedy is even more profound when you consider the impact of just one death that day — that of Maureen L. Olson.

Christopher and Maeve Olson, high school students in 2001, lost their mother.

No more birthdays.

No more Christmases.

John Eric Olson lost his wife.

No more walks through the streets of her beloved Manhattan.

"We met in 1979 on a blind date in New York," her husband told the New York Times in 2001.

At that time, "She lived on 65th Street and First Avenue. But in the 1960’s and 1970’s she lived up in the high East 90’s.

"In the past year or so she had been looking around to move back to the city. I am sure we would have."

Marian Masone, who first met Maureen more than 30 years at Manhattan Marymount College, lost a dear friend.

"Her sister and my sister were two years ahead of us,” Masone told the New York Times. “We even dropped out of college the same day, in the middle of our junior year. Eventually, we both went back."

Maureen’s colleagues at Marsh Inc., a risk and insurance firm at the World Trade Center, lost a trusted co-worker. Maureen was a business librarian for the company.

“Maureen was a good friend and colleague,” Bill Gardner wrote on a tribute page for Maureen. “She was always there for me when I ‘needed something’ from the Info Center and I was always there for her when she became inundated with questions she didn't know how to answer relating to Workers Compensation from all over the Marsh system. I miss you and our phone conversations.”

Maureen L. Olson, who would have turned 51 on Oct. 12, 2001, was like the rest of us. She loved her family. She loved her work. She loved her life. How do you measure the loss? I do not know.

But one thing is certain — it is vital that we never forget Maureen L. Olson and every other life that was lost that day.

We owe it to them.

And to those closest to them that they left to remember.

For more about Maureen, read a Sept. 19, 2001, profile in Newsday.

And to see her tribute on the 9/11 Victims Memorial Quilt, go here.

If you knew Maureen, please leave a comment.

For more on Olson, click here.

Read other tributes, here.

On 9/11/10, I remember Jie Yao Justin Zhao

  

Jie Yao Justin Zhao

Justin Zhao was like me somewhat in one respect: We are both the children of immigrants, our parents uprooting from their homelands — mine from Cuba, his from China — and coming to America to build a better life.

And that is exactly what Zhao did, for himself and for his family.

The New York Times published a brief profile of Zhao a little more than three months after he died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001:

Justin Zhao earned good grades as a student and never rebelled, even as a teenager. After starting to work for Aon as a computer technician, Mr. Zhao, 26, frequently gave his parents money and always bought them cakes and fruits.

This year was the first time that the Zhaos found their financial burden lightened since they immigrated to the United States 15 years ago from Guangzhou, China. At first, they lived in a basement apartment in Woodside, Queens. The father, Qixuan Zhao, waited on tables in Chinese restaurants, and the mother, Shuzhen Zhao, sewed clothes in Chinese garment factories.

Then earlier this year, their sons, Jimmy and Justin, both City University of New York graduates, found well-paying jobs. Suddenly, taking vacations and enjoying retirement were no longer preposterous goals.

"But who knew this would happen?" said Jimmy Zhao, Justin's older brother. "We just cannot accept the reality. We are still in denial."

Many immigrants' dreams died on 9/11. Dozens, if not hundreds of those killed in New York were foreign citizens, united only by their faith in America, the faith the terrorists tried, but failed, to kill.

Read other tributes to the victims of 9/11, here.

Political prisoner: Castroism = terrorism

From the depths of the Castro gulag, political prisoner Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta sends his condolences to the American people on the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In doing so, Herrera accurately draws a parallel between America's war on terror and his own war with the Castro dictatorship:

"It has been seven years since a horrendous act of terrorism against humanity, a crime that I will never forget. The generous people of the United States deserve respect. We Cubans also are a victim of terrorism: Castroist totalitarianism."

Herrera is an independent journalist arrested during the "black spring" of March-April 2003, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He currently is on hunger strike to protest conditions at the Holguín provincial prison.

Today, I remember Maureen Olson

Maureen L. "Rene" Olson, Oct. 12, 1950-Sept. 11, 2001

One of the more rewarding experiences blogging has allowed me was the chance last year to participate in the "2,996 project," in which bloggers on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks paid tribute to each of the victims.

That is how I got to know Maureen L. "Rene" Olson, who was killed at the World Trade Center in New York.

When I focused on one life lost, and not just on "2,996," the tragedy of that day seemed more profound.

It still does.

You can read my tribute to Rene here. Here's an excerpt:

Maureen L. Olson, who would have turned 51 on Oct. 12, 2001, was like the rest of us.

She loved her family.

She loved her work.

She loved her life.

How do you measure the loss?

I do not know.

But one thing is certain — it is vital that we never forget Maureen L. Olson and every other life that was lost that day.

We owe it to them.

And to those closest to them that they left to remember.

Read more about Maureen Olson here.

Happy Birthday, Rene

Maureen "Rene" Lyons Olson — wife of John Eric and mother of Christopher and Maeve, and so much more — would have turned 56 today.

Except for the terrorists of 9/11.

Last month, I remembered Rene Olson as part of a blogosphere-wide effort to commemorate the lives of each of the victims of the attacks.

A month and a day later, it seems even more appropriate to remember her on the anniversary of her birth.

From an obituary I found online last month:

Rene will be forever remembered for her sense of humor, sense of adventure and love of travel. In 1992, after running for only 2 years, Rene trained for and ran the New York City Marathon. In 1999 she walked in the Avon Three Day Walk to raise funds for breast cancer research. Her love of travel helped her see most of the United States as well as much of the world. A frequent visitor to Europe, Rene’s favorite place was Paris. Her travels also brought her to Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico to name just a few places.

Rene’s door was always open. She was the first person to welcome a new family to the block, or to lend a hand. She loved to entertain and was a marvelous cook. Her love of the arts included being an avid theatre-goer, movie-goer and book club member.

Again, Rene, Happy Birthday!

More on Maureen Olson

I was re-reading my post from last week about Maureen Olson, one of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

And I decided I wanted to know more about here.

This is what I found:

Maureen “Rene” Lyons Olson was born in Far Rockaway, NY on October 12, 1950, the third daughter of William and Dorothy Lyons. In 1954, Rene’s parents, together with her sisters Susan and Ginger, and her brother Billy moved to Lynbrook where Rene’s younger sisters, Tricia and Dorothy, were born.

She attended St. Raymond’s School in East Rockaway for kindergarten, and was in the first class to complete Our Lady of Peace School for all eight years. She then went to Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead where she graduated in 1968. The Lyons family were long-time members of the Ocean Club in Atlantic Beach where Rene grew to love the beach.

After high school Rene attended colleges in New York and Boston, interspersing her studies with an insurance career. After a successful career in insurance in Boston, Rene returned to New York to complete her college degree in communications at Marymount Manhattan College.

After graduating from Marymount, Rene worked at the Home Insurance Company in Lower Manhattan while living on the Upper East Side. In February 1979, she met her future husband, John Eric Olson, on a blind date. They were married in March, 1981, moved to Atlantic Beach and in 1985, when their son Christopher was 4 and their daughter, Maeve Elizabeth was 18 months, they moved to Rockville Centre.

As the children grew older, Rene returned to school, receiving a Master’s Degree in library science at St. John’s University where she achieved a perfect 4.0 average in 1987. Rene worked part time as a law librarian at the Long Island law firm of Rivkin, Radler. As the children entered high school, she began to work full time as the assistant head librarian at the firm.

Rene took a very active role in her children’s lives including being a CCD teacher as well as their #1 fan at every cross country and track meet, soccer game, basketball game and baseball game. The Olson family has been a member of Sun & Surf Beach Club for more than 15 years.

Rene will be forever remembered for her sense of humor, sense of adventure and love of travel. In 1992, after running for only 2 years, Rene trained for and ran the New York City Marathon. In 1999 she walked in the Avon Three Day Walk to raise funds for breast cancer research. Her love of travel helped her see most of the United States as well as much of the world. A frequent visitor to Europe, Rene’s favorite place was Paris. Her travels also brought her to Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico to name just a few places.

Rene’s door was always open. She was the first person to welcome a new family to the block, or to lend a hand. She loved to entertain and was a marvelous cook. Her love of the arts included being an avid theatre-goer, movie-goer and book club member.

Rene had studied, worked and lived in Manhattan for much of her life. When the opportunity came to return to the city in 1998 to work at Marsh, Inc. she accepted it readily. She loved being in the city, loved commuting with her husband, and loved taking advantage of everything the city had to offer. The city is where she wanted to be, and that is where she was on September 11, 2001.

Rene Lyons Olson was known to her family as a rock of strength and will remain forever in their hearts and prayers.