went to a screening of "dissident"

last night at tribeca film festival. a brilliant documentary about oswaldo paya, a cuban petitioning peacefully for democratic reform in cuba. we swilled chardonnay at the tribeca grill and watched the story of a very ordinary man petitioning for what seem to us to be simple freedoms: freedom of speech, free enterprise, free elections. and in that room full of reporters and politicians and filmakers and writers and wealth and education, we heard his voice as he called from cuba and told us to speak out. a room of privlegeded listening to a room of a person who has had his entire network of peaceful revolutionearies thrown in jail by fidel. and yet and yet. sometimes i think, do we really have those freedoms here in america/ especially right now? the patriot act scares me. i wonder sometimes if i should even post anything political on this blog at all. and then i hear oswaldos voice saying tell them, through your art through whatever means you have. so i write it down, post it here.