January 1991
You are there again on the
pink path when 1991 is ushered in with the same playful cannon
fire on the island; but it's the foreshadowing cannon fire off
the island that is occupying most people's unconscious attention
-- something brewing in the Persian Gulf that will soon acquire
the name Operation Desert Storm. Sure it's a safe distance away,
they are saying. Sure, no one close, no one sitting around the
Tarpon Bar watching coverage on the TV has a relative in the
fight - except they say in a whisper, "the guy at the end
of the bar with his head hanging over his Guinness. His son enlisted
because his high school grades were in the toilet."
You along with the others on
the island are watching live coverage of a war, an actual war
that was started by another war when a neighboring country was
accused of "slant-drilling" for oil and then attacked.
But questioning the reasons for going to war now is not helpful;
it's too late to turn back. And even when the reasons are legitimate,
as the 51 Cubans trained here on the island can attest: It's
one thing to be "vulnerable to our enemies," one of
them said, and another to be misled by "our friends."
And while those thoughts and
others rumble through your mind as you sit watching the chilling
reports of war on TV - like it's some new Hollywood version of
Reality TV - the others in the room seem to be experiencing the
same uneasy feelings you are, yet they are unaware that this
island has many times come closer to the edge of conflict than
anyone could currently imagine: the ambushed patrol that set
out from the island during the Civil War; José Caldez
and the fate of the island's custom official Henry B. Crews back
in the early 1800s; runaway slaves; the Indian Removal Act or
the mysterious disappearance of the Calusas; and, of course,
the Bay of Pigs vetting. History lessons that bring a truth closer
to home, whatever that truth is and only if people are willing
to listen.
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