Somebody has to say it

Submitted by Doug on 28 April, 2007 - 22:41.

Rest in Peace Ben Linder, you are not forgotten (end of original post)

To clearify my original post, EVERY life is a precious thing, Ben paid the same price as everyone who has died (and continues to die) in horrible stupid conflicts.

His passing did draw a light to the concealed atrocities, for this I remember him. It awoke the good people in the US to demand an end to secret funding of a war that was coated in anti-communist propoganda.

He was brave enough to try to make a diference very far from home. For this he paid the ultimate price. I doubt if I could have found that much courage.

I don't belive "Wikipedia" lists the other two brave souls that were lost with Ben, Pablo Rosales and Sergio Hernandez,they all paid the same price.

I am sorry if my original post was not more clear, if some feel that Casa Ben Linder and his memory are somehow "corrupt", well,opinions are like the part off your body you sit with, everyone has one

‹ Seventh Day Adventists This month, we honor Ben Linder, a fallen advocate for peace ›
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In Memoriam

Submitted by Alra on 29 April, 2007 - 16:37.

Benjamin Ernest Linder

Nacido, 7 Julio 1959

San Francisco, California

U.S.A.

Caido, 28 de Abril 1987

San Jose del Bocay

Jinotega, Nicaragua

"LA LUZ QUE ENCENDIO BRILLARA PARA SIEMPRE"

Al

Never forget...

Submitted by thunderdial on 29 April, 2007 - 09:51.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Linder

"In 1986, Linder moved from Managua to El Cuá, a village in the Nicaraguan war zone"

I wish we had memorials, rememberances, websites, for the regular folks in Nicaragua that got killed, by both sides. They, unlike Linder, didn't choose to live in a war zone.

True but ...

Submitted by fyl on 29 April, 2007 - 13:20.

Ben's decision to move to El Cuá was not motivated by it being a war zone. It was motivated by his desire to do something for the people. That was, of course, bring electricity to a community that had never had any.

Unfortunately, the goal of "the opposition" was to discredit the Nicaraguan government rather than to "fight for freedom". There were many attempts by the Contra to destroy the hydro plant in El Cua. In addition, when Ben was killed it was pretty obvious that he was not doing anti-Contra work. He was, again, just trying to help people.

It's sad that it took killing an "American" to make a serious change in the perception of what was happening in Nicaragua. But, it did and that is another reason to honor him.

I don't know...

Submitted by thunderdial on 29 April, 2007 - 19:11.

The source I quoted said he went to Nicaragua because he "was romantic about the revolution." If he wanted to help people, he could have done that in the US, or even Mexico - he didn't have to go so far, to a place so deliberate as Nicaragua.

How about a compromise - maybe he wanted "to help the revolution?" If you truly believe in the revolution, there should be no shame in it. So why not just say why it is he was there?

We are all guessing

Submitted by fyl on 29 April, 2007 - 20:54.

I never met Ben but I have talked to people that knew him. That includes Mira Brown who I met in Washington state when she was doing a "this is what Ben is doing" fundraising trip and family members after his death.

Based on what I know, my guess is that to Ben the Nicaraguan revolution was like the Cuban revolution was to some people 20 years earlier. That is, he saw it as the people taking power from a long-term corrupt government. He saw the needs that he could help with and just wanted to do it.

What he got to do (design and build a power plant--he was working on the design of the second for Bocay when he was murdered) is not something that a new mechanical engineer gets to do in most places--the US being the prime example. For him, it was an opportunity that he likely would never have had elsewhere. That, I think, is what got him from Managua to El Cuá.

I can identify

Submitted by thunderdial on 29 April, 2007 - 21:12.

I actually thought about the professional angle. Earlier in my career, I got to work on some projects internationally that I would have never been allowed to touch back in the states. However, my foreign bosses and customers were not revolutionaries.

It is a curiosity why he was romantic about the Cuban revolution 20 years earlier, but as an obviously bright and intelligent man, didn't take advantage of the 20 years of hindsight and realize what it yielded.

You misunderstood

Submitted by fyl on 30 April, 2007 - 06:14.

Or I mis-spoke. It was not that he was romantic about the Cuban revolution. He wasn't even born. It was he was romantic about the Sandinista revolution like some people 20 years earlier were romantic about the Cuban revolution.

In the case of both, I would have liked to have seen what would have happened had the US just let the people of the country pick their own destiny. I am no expert on the Cuban revolution but with what I know about the Nicaraguan one, I feel that a more moderate government would have evolved (probably based on one of the other factions of the FSLN) without US pressure.

Very well said!!!

Submitted by Pinolero2 on 29 April, 2007 - 10:55.

ThunderDude, most people(Non-Nicaraguan) don't seem to grasp what you just stated. That reminded me of the song "Las Mujeres Del Cua"

FAP

Thank you

Submitted by thunderdial on 29 April, 2007 - 11:57.

That's what happens when the movement becomes corrupt; they think of engineers on unicycles and Socialistapalooza in Seattle, not the people who actually paid the price.

Thanks

Submitted by fyl on 29 April, 2007 - 06:20.

I had intended to post some photos from the Seattle rally 20 years ago but never found them.