If I was Ozzie Guillen

The big irony of the Ozzie Guillen-Fidel Castro episode is that it happened over easter weekend. Please don't take this in the wrong way, but it sounds like Jesus got his and now Ozzie is the new sacrifice. Of course, Jesus wasn't sacrificed. He was censored in the strongest sense of the word, and now it is Ozzie's turn. Unfortunately for him, the anti-Castro Cuban community is almost as strong as the 1st century Roman empire.

One major difference between these two examples is that Jesus had a soft and gentle message for people living under Roman oppression, while Ozzie was insensitive to a bunch of angry and powerful emigres who occupy the city where he manages a baseball franchise. But what was so bad about Ozzie's message? If I were Ozzie Guillen, I would have responded much differently.

Members of the press, Marlins fans and people of the western hemisphere, I want to take this opportunity to apologize for my hurtful comments. Sometimes I say things that I haven't thought through well enough, and clearly I have hurt some feelings, which I never intended to do. I didn't come here to Miami to hurt feelings. I came to bring pride to a city with millions of Latin Americans, like me. I am a baseball manager, not a politician or historian. I don't know enough about Fidel Castro to have made comprehensive comments about the man's life. That said, my comments were about his longevity. He has managed to stay in power, under extreme odds, for over half a century. I couldn't even stay with the White Sox for a decade, and I brought them to the World Series.

If I were really bold and had brought Miami to a World Series before facing this firing squad, I might add...

Since I now have to take responsibility for my comments, I would like to take this opportunity to teach something about this man that you have vilified. Fidel Castro came to the United Nations, upon his ascension to power, and promised full literacy for his people within a year. Before he came to power, just over half of all Cubans could read and write, but within one year of his promise, 99 percent of Cubans were literate. Also, despite the fact that wealth was redistributed by force, Castro created, universal health care for Cubans, something tens of millions of Americans don't have. Today, in Cuba, all children go to high quality public schools. All citizens have housing, employment and food. They may not enjoy the freedom to amass great wealth, but they all have the freedom to go to bed with food in their stomachs. So while I can understand the pain of those who left their country and their wealth because they were not willing to share it with their fellow country men and women, I completely resent this effort to stifle my freedom of expression, the constitutionally guaranteed right that makes this country great. I didn't exercise my freedom with the intention to hurt, and I am sorry for any pain I have caused, but if you don't want to watch the baseball team under my management because you want to make a political statement, that's fine, just don't be so selfish as to try to determine the future of Miami baseball based on your political baggage. That behavior has no place in any country, especially this one.