Che! You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

By Mike S. Adams
Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Dear UNC-Wilmington Board of Trustees:

I am writing to ask a favor of the Board – one I hope it will take seriously in light of our institution's desire to fight hatred and intolerance on all levels. My request is based on my concern that the rising number of Che Guevara t-shirts among UNCW students reflects a profound ignorance of his life and his true legacy. I think that building a Guevara Memorial in the center of campus would go a long way towards remedying this kind of ignorance.

Before I get into the details of what I want to include in the new Guevara Memorial I would like to address the reasons why he is so misunderstood. A lot of the confusion has to do with the press. Here are some examples of misleading statements made by columnists and authors, which might explain why some of our students regard him as a hero rather than a villain:

"Few doubt Che's sincerity." David Segal, Washington Post.

"[Che presented a] Christ-like image … with his mortuary gaze it is as if Guevara looks upon his killers and forgives them." Jorge Castaneda, Newsweek.

"Che's decency and nobility always led him to apologize." Jorge Castaneda, Newsweek.

"Bravery, fearlessness, honesty, austerity, and absolute conviction … he lived it – Che really lived it." Jon Lee Anderson, author.

"[Che's image] derives from a visual language … it also references a classical Christ-like demeanor." Trisha Ziff, Guggenheim Museum Curator.

"Che died a martyr's death in 1967." David Segal, Washington Post.

In order to help counteract some of the misleading statements authors, journalists, academics, and celebrities have made about Guevara, I would propose that we model his memorial after Thomas Jefferson's. Following that plan, we could carve some of his most revealing quotes into the walls of the memorial for all to see. Some suggestions follow:

"A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate." Che Guevara.

"If the nuclear missiles had remained we would have used them against the very heart of America, including New York City." Che Guevara.

"We will march the path of victory even if it costs millions of atomic victims... We must keep our hatred alive and fan it to paroxysm." Che Guevara.

"Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial bowl." Che Guevara.

"Don't shoot! I'm Che, I'm worth more to you alive than dead." Che Guevara.

"(T)o execute a man we don't need proof of his guilt. We only need proof that it's necessary to execute him. It's that simple." Che Guevara.

I also want to make sure that a special room documents Che's commitment to gay rights. It is important for people to know that when Madonna dresses up in a Che Guevara outfit she is supporting a man who helped criminalize gay sex and supported the incarceration of young men who exhibited mannerisms merely perceived to be gay.

Another room could be used to place some of his actual correspondence in glass cases. That way, people could learn that Guevara signed some of his early correspondence "Stalin II."

Another room could display pictures of Che fighting in actual revolutionary warfare. This room would be nearly empty because there is little evidence that he ever fought in anything that could be characterized as a real battle. This is due to the fact that most of the people killed by Che were men and boys he shot at close range while they were bound and gagged.

Another room would be built especially for death penalty opponents. It would feature 1892 candles – one for each of the men Che sentenced to the firing squad. This is the most conservative estimate I could find, by the way. Other sources say he admitted to "several thousand" executions during the first year of the Castro regime alone. (The Black Book of Communism claims that the firing squads of Castro and Guevara produced a total of 14,000 murders by 1970).

Another room would educate visitors about the true impact that the regime Che co-founded had on race relations. Special attention would be given to the life of Eusebio Penalver who was the longest serving black political prisoner of the 20th century. He was incarcerated in Cuba longer than Nelson Mandela was incarcerated in South Africa. His jailers called him "Nigger" and "Monkey." They also warned him that they would pull him down from the trees and cut off his tail. Instead, they just put him in solitary confinement. No wonder only .08% of Cuba's communist rulers are black. And no wonder 85% of its prisoners are black. The term "apartheid" could be applied to Cuba if only American communist professors were honest.

Another room would feature a picture of Che wearing his Rolex watch. It will be dedicated to all of my communist colleagues who talk like revolutionaries, live like hypocrites, and fail to teach their students about inconvenient truths.