(AgapePress) - Last night the National Children’s Theater of Cuba performed at the Shiley Theater on the campus of University of San Diego. The University of San Diego (USD) is closely affiliated with the U.S. Catholic Church. The performance by the National Children’s Theater of Cuba was officially sponsored by San Francisco based organization, Global Exchange. In its literature, Global Exchange professes its admiration for the Cuban government of dictator Fidel Castro and (in their words) Cuba’s effort in becoming "an environmental model in international development." Global Exchange has also publicly denounced the Bush Administration’s policy towards Cuba.

Outside the scheduled performance last night, a small group of Southern Californian citizen activists protested Cuba’s human rights violations and in particular voiced their opposition to a dictator "who has enslaved and killed thousands of his people since the late 1950s." (California Republican Assembly - East San Diego County). On several occasions, the anti-Castro protesters were vulgarly-named called, including being called, "terrorists."

One of the protesters was Sylvia (Sera) Sullivan, whose parents were born and raised in Cuba. Sylvia still has relatives who live in Cuba and are not allowed to visit her (due to Castro’s government being concerned that they might escape their homeland). Three years ago Sylvia’s uncle was allowed to meet with his American sister for the first time in almost 30 years (in Switzerland). Castro’s government would not allow Sylvia’s uncle’s wife to come to this family reunion for fear that the rest of their family might join him and escape to freedom.

We continue to hear (first hand) of stories like Sylvia’s relatives involving depravation of freedom, political persecution, and religious persecution from dictators like Fidel Castro, and Saddam Hussein. Nevertheless, quite often college campus’s and the academic community at large seem to be much more tolerant of dictators like Castro and Hussein. While all members of the academic community would find censorship of political speech to be intolerable, these same dictators which they routinely defend would never allow their own people in their own countries to voice opposition to their homeland regimes.

Many college professors and left leaning students will quickly denounce the United States as a greater danger to world peace but will often ignore ruthless dictators like Castro and Saddam Hussein. This has been especially the case during the last week when we have observed war protests around the country. Students will ignore the stories of personal deprival that most of these regimes subject to their own people and often ignore the historical good will that America offers to peoples who seek freedom.

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