¡Cuba o busto! (Or how I lost your mother for 2 weeks to the *Forbidden Land*!)

Summer -- that time of year again when the migration of concerned and conscientious Canadian and American citizens from the *Excited States of Amnesia* (a 'shout-out' to Janine Bancroft for that one) will defy U.S. authority by going to that tiny Never-Never-Land nation of Cuba. You know, Cuba, that place that has scared the shit out of America so much that the U.S. now harbors terrorists who have slaughtered innocent civilians merely because they supported Cuba's right to exist.

Under the oversight of Pastors for Peace, volunteer ladened buses from across the country will converge in southern Texas with desperately needed supplies like medicines, computers, etc. made unavailable to Cubans due to the ongoing decades old U.S. embargo against them.

I've started following Janine Bancroft (of Vancouver, B.C., Canada) via Journey to Cuba with Pastors for Peace website. Her most recent post puts her in Phoenix after having crossed the desert fromSalt Lake City in an unairconditioned bus where the temperatures outside were as high as 117 (probably more inside the bus!). And tomorrow they are due to stay the night in El Paso.

While Mrs. Dada and I attended last year's El Paso overnight hosting of the caravanistas, of which Janine was a part, I didn't actually meet her. Tomorrow night, during a potluck dinner for the travelers hosted by the local Unitarian Universalist church, I intend to do so. And I look forward to meeting this year's new faces making their first journey to the land 'down under' just 90 miles from Florida.

I deeply admire Janine's commitment to a better world, which it would be were there more dedicated people like her and fewer of the damned status quo folks who aren't!