The Best of What’s Around: Style without knowledge
When a shirt says more than the person wearing it
By Craig Finkelstein, staff writer
Posted on November 2, 2006

Every time I stroll through campus, one of the first things I notice about another person is what they are wearing. My interest is usually piqued when someone garbs a T-shirt with a personal message or writing that attracts my eye. Most of the time it’s a message like “I’m hot, “I’m a player,” “Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?” or something equally as ridiculous, worn mostly by those who fail to fit the descriptive message. I attribute these types of statements being worn by the self-conscious identity-complex sufferers and applaud them for their efforts at feeling good about needing a shirt to speak louder than they are able to. 

There is one specific shirt I see more often than others that I simply cannot comprehend. While I hope most would feel disgusted at the sight of someone wearing an Osama Bin Laden T-shirt, the same feeling should also be expressed at the sight of anyone wearing a Che Guevara shirt.

To many, wearing a Guevara shirt is a pop culture trend that is associated with the thought of being against “the system,” as portrayed through the symbol of Guevara’s face, a famous portrait taken by Alberto Korda. Guevara’s image has been the embodiment of the communist movement of not just Cuba, but a worldwide symbol for promoting the communist ideology.

This has been the status quo for many when they think of Guevara. However, truth be told, he was a murderous tyrannical lunatic whose opposition to the United States and supporter of terror was no different than that of Osama Bin Laden. 

Guevara was a comrade of Fidel Castro and assisted in the Communist Revolution of Cuba in 1959 that overthrew the military rule of the Batista regime. Throughout this campaign, Guevara committed ruthless acts that involved torture, executions and carnage all in the name of the revolution. Opponents of Castro’s revolution were seen as political dissidents and were subsequently slaughtered no matter what their role was, civilian or military. 

During the campaign, Guevara was in charge of the La Cabana Fortress prison, a complex where opponents of the communist revolution were imprisoned. It was here that Guevara committed the most atrocious crimes ever, torturing individuals without just cause and sentencing victims without any trial or lawful proceeding to death.

Not only was Guevara not the peaceful, trendy socialist revolutionary that many would like to make him out to be — he was also vehemently committed to the destruction of the United States. Guevara strongly supported the Soviet opposition to the United States and oversaw the placement of Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba. A few weeks after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Guevara told the British newspaper The Daily Worker, “that had the missiles been under Cuban control, they would have fired them off.” Essentially, Guevara had every intention of decimating this country with a nuclear weapon; much like modern-day terrorists would like to do.

After a brief run through the historical facts surrounding Guevara’s legacy, one still must wonder why anyone would want to wear a shirt with the face of such a psycho. How is supporting the use of weapons of mass destruction, committing torture and widespread murder any different than what Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda attempt to perform? When you run into anyone on campus wearing a Guevara shirt, only two thoughts should come to mind: either they are ignorant and idiotic and have no idea about the nature of the clothing they dress themselves in every morning, or they, like Guevara, hate the United States and support widespread murder and torture in the name of a political cause. Either way, someone who chooses to wear such a piece of clothing has serious moral issues and should go back to having their mother dress them in the morning.

Craig Finkelstein is a senior international affairs major who patriotically supports the greatest nation in the world, the United States of America.