Postcard from Havanna
Kelly, Mary Pat
WHO KNOWS? It looks as though the nation will have Bill Clinton to kick around a while longer. On Topic A we know nothing more than we read in the newspapers and see on television (nobody's...
...Remedy: more self-flagellation, more self-criticism, and more genuine reporting...
...On Topic A we know nothing more than we read in the newspapers and see on television (nobody's leaking to Commonweal...
...But a man in a red-and-white striped shirt was skillfully guiding two boys ever forward, so I stuck with them until the crowd became impenetrable...
...By the end of the Mass, I knew the tour guide had done me a great favor in turning me over to the Cuban people...
...The procession dissolved against a wall of people...
...Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater prosecutor, after expending three-and-a-half years and millions of dollars, has succeeded only in exposing the corruption of Arkansas politics...
...There were no vendors and nothing for sale...
...He could resign if he is found "not innocent," but we doubt he will be so found, even though he may be guilty of something--or other...
...One of our group wrote "Viva El Papa...
...When he saw me try to take a picture, he put his son up on his shoulders, gestured for me to give him the camera, and the boy photographed the crowd and the altar...
...He has yet to find an indictable offense by the president...
...I assured myself: no plane with so much ecclesiastical purple on it could crash...
...Few reported "facts" are verified...
...Her words were meant kindly--and, for me, it worked...
...I had expected our trip, put together in Miami at the last minute, would be a circumscribed experience...
...To forgiveness," he said...
...Not at all...
...9 Topic C: The media will self-flagellate about the frenzied coverage even as the coverage continues...
...Probably ten reporters in Washington have good sources for this story...
...Conclusion: for all of the coverage, we know very little...
...In English, he replied, "Yes and the Mets have a Cuban too...
...On the brief drive to Havana, we drew alongside a caravan of rickety buses from San Luis...
...To a young man in a Florida Marlins baseball cap, I tried in my bad Spanish, "Hernandez, bueno...
...Their passengers held small homemade paper flags...
...Which is to say that what we "know" is a mass of contradictions...
...If Mr...
...Enough said...
...We (cardinals, bishops, priests, and lay people) would fly to Havana at 5 A.M., go straight to the Mass, and return immediately after...
...They picked up the rhythm of the chanting crowd, "Juan Pablo our friend, Cuba is with you," and "With the pope, Cuba has hope...
...this leaves a thousand to create the feeding frenzy...
...Standing at the edge, I saw many families with children and groups of teen-agers wearing tee shirts that said, "Juan Pablo II: Mensajero De La Verdad La Esperanza...
...As we write on February 3, the impeachment of Mr...
...Overload on high dudgeon...
...Esperanza" was the theme of the day, that and a fervent desire for an end to isolation...
...It is also time either to revise the independent-counsel law or to let it expire...
...Our first attempt to land in Havana ended in a scary maneuver...
...Is it favor-the-underdog sentiment...
...Yet, the pursuit of rumor-mongering, fueled by the well-oiled machinery of Clinton-bashers, hardly does credit to the office or purpose of the independent counsel...
...We hope that Mr...
...Nods and applause...
...The pope got one of his biggest cheers when he calIed for Cuba to open up to the world...
...Commonweal 6 February 13, 1998...
...I followed...
...I got my flags from an older black man, a self-appointed distributor...
...These hospitable people certainly seemed ready...
...And now I turn you over to the Cuban people," the young woman from the Ministry of Tourism said, gesturing toward Havana's Plaza of the Revolution where hundreds of thousands waited for Mass to begin...
...On Topics B, C, D, this should be said: _9 Topic B: The Office of the Independent Counsel was established to thwart the abuse of executive privilege...
...the Eucharist was shared...
...We were soon exchanging peace signs and thumbs up...
...Or is it simply an invocation of the common law principle, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law...
...We hope that he did not ask her to lie...
...Just then, the San Luis bus group arrived carrying yellow balloons and processed toward the front with a little Samba in their steps...
...When the pope arrived, the crowd waved the flags wildly, screaming "Christ is present" and "Cuba siempre Cat6Iica...
...So many went to Communion that they ran out...
...Opinion polls show that many do not believe the president's denials, yet his standing in the polls has never been higher...
...Most people sang without referring to the printed words...
...Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the University of Pennsylvania, appearing on the "News Hour with Jim Lehrer," offered this astute rundown: The news is ahead of the story...
...Tour buses met us, complete with young women in red flight-attendant uniforms...
...Indifference to sexual sins...
...Starr does not find an indictable offense, it's time for someone to call an end to what looks like a fishing expedition for minnows...
...No, Mr...
...Clinton did not have sex-any kind of sex--with a White House intern...
...Under the circumstances, the latter is a sound principle...
...Starr is not part of a right-wing conspiracy...
...Clinton appears unlikely...
...MARY PAT KELLY Mary Pat Kelly, inveterate traveler and frequent Commonweal contributor, is author of the novel, Special Intentions (Dublin: New Island, 1997...
...He also reported that there had been speculation among Cubans about Fidel's private meeting with the pope...
...Perhaps Fidel has gone to...," he searched for the English...
...I have since read news reports that people were unfamiliar with the Mass...
...9 Topic D: The American people, thus far, reserve judgment but in a paradoxical manner...
...A woman handed me a pamphlet with the hymns and I joined in the singing...
...The altar was five football fields away, and the crowd was enormous...
Vol. 125 • February 1998 • No. 3
