Displaced 3rd World Dictators Tour of Miami

Calling All College Students in Florida, Help Me Design a “Displaced Third World Dictators Tour of Miami”

My name is Cotton Smith and I live in Miami Florida. If you live in Florida, you know that our progressive political culture is a little underdeveloped. We’ve got the Bushes, we’ve got the religious Republican right, we’ve got the Cuban right (though, to be clear, I know enough to understand the political diversity in Miami’s Cuban community, and there is a significant, albeit smaller, progressive and/or Democratic Cuban community), etc. Miami makes a go at being the capital of Latin America, though apparently it’s losing to other cities in Latin America. A major paper, I forget which one, just moved its Latin American bureau from Miami to a major city, again I forget which one, in Latin America. I’ll see if I can find the link.

Miami is home to a good number of underworld characters. Just read a little Carl Hiassen, or the Miami Herald, or watch a few Miami Vice, and you’ll get a few takes on this consensus issue. One subgroup of Miami’s shame is what appears to me from afar (not geographically, I live in Miami, but I am not truly sure, and haven’t had time to examine the matter fully) to be a substantial community of ex-dictators, human rights abusers, terrorist-types, etc.

This is where my knowledge ends, but this is where the research begins.

A PROPOSAL

We, that’s me and my partners (hopefully who are students or have a little more time than I (I assure you, I’m not lazy, I have a job that causes me to work 60-80 hours a week for social justice)), need to research, and put together a Displaced Third World Dictators Tour of Miami. I imagine it would have to be a bus tour, not a walking tour, but that depends on what our research shows.

We’ve heard about the Cuban anti-Castro terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles, who earlier in the year turned up in Miami’s underground. We’ve heard of the supporters of the oppressive Duvalier regime in Haiti. I’m under the impression that there are former death-squad militants from other Latin countries in Miami. Let’s do a little homework, let’s make a list, let’s explore the interconnections, and let’s shed a little light.

Now let’s not get ourselves hurt, let’s keep this subterranean enough until we know what we’re dealing with. When we’re done, let’s organize a Miami Reality Tour, maybe see some of the mansions where these ex-killers now live in luxury. Or perhaps they are guilty of the “violencia blanca,” the white violence, meaning those that turned a blind eye to bloodshed but didn’t directly participate. I may be mis-using the term violencia blanca. I learned it when reading Latin American liberation theology in the early 1990’s. It may mean those that commit the white violence of promoting poverty and inequality (as opposed to actual bloodshed). The violence of daily life without enough food for your children, the violence of your children having to change schools when you are evicted from your home.

Let’s petition Carl Hiassen to be the emcee for our tour.

Hotels Need to Fill the Gap

An Open Letter to Red Roof Inn Management

I travel for work a lot. I’m a Gold Medallion on Delta and will come close to Platinum this year.

I wonder if I’ll make it within flight-shot such that I’ll have to do one of those “miles marathons” the final days of December to put me over 75,000. Early this year, I was on a real travel tear, logging miles at a rapid clip. Then somewhere this summer, I just broke down and couldn’t do it anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still travel a lot. But I’ve resolved to try to stay home (my fiancée and I just bought a house) more. We are getting married in February. Don’t want to get divorced before I get married.

These new TSA rules banning liquids and gels are a hassle. Besides being dehydrating, they are giving me bad breath. I think all the hotel chains need to respond immediately and pick up the slack. Here’s how to do it cheaply. Red Roof Inn, my current preferred chain (they’re cheap, omnipresent, usually clean, they’re upgrading all their sites, and they have a frequent sleeper program), offers a little shampoo pack in the rooms. They need to start offering toothpaste and shaving cream packets too. Not full blown canisters, just those single-use plastic sleeves. Fine, raise my rates $.50 or $1.00, just get on this. At least upon request, or at least for Redicard members. I’m a business traveler, and it makes no sense for me to have to go to the store to buy a new thing of toothpaste and shaving cream (they don’t make them in single-use sizes anyway) each trip.

Let’s see if you guys get on it. If not, I’ll have to start an online petition to make you do the right thing!

On Flying Too Much

I think I’m flying too much. Last night I beat my record at the “airport run.” This was in Atlanta, and my flight from Louisville was late and I had ten minutes to make the connection. I had to get from B28 to A4; so I ran. There’s this dynamic when you’re running in airports of social reinforcement. When I started, more I’d say jogging, other people started to as well. One guy actually beat me there. There was another guy, with a clearly bad knee. This was in the A terminal, after I abandoned the train between terminals and just ran between them. Even he, bad knee and all, was running for the plane. It’s partly a Friday night thing. We all just wanted to get home.

Once on the plane, Delta popped in its videotaped message for passengers. The video has a soundtrack to it, and I was in kindof a daze, so I heard the song very clearly. I think I’d like to get a copy of it and set it to a hip hop beat. I wonder if Delta commissioned this song, or if its some kind of song that was in circulation that they or their ad agency bought. Either way, I’d like to remix it. I have no experience at Djing or mixing, but I’d like to. I live in Miami and everyone’s a DJ around here. I must be flying too much.