Hey, You Can't Ride Your Bike Over There!

by Jason C. Ditz

Marcella Ströbel is an 82 year old woman from Buena Vista, Michigan. B.V. is, for those who are wondering, a suburb of my hometown of Saginaw, Michigan. There are no vistas, and nothing is particularly buena about it either. Ms. Ströbel apparently likes to ride her bicycle, and that's where she got into trouble.

According to an article in the local "Saginaw News" Marcella took a little trip last month. She thought it'd be enjoyable to take a nice leisurely bike ride in Havana, Cuba. She was seemingly unaware of what's been going on in Cuba for the past 40 years, because in the quotes regarding her trip she is shocked at how many poor people and beggars there were.

She saw an ad in the Wall Street Journal for this trip, and she left from Toronto. When she returned to Toronto, Ms. Ströbel was interrogated by U.S. customs officials, and they threatened to fine her $50,000 and take all her souvenirs. Ms. Ströbel says of the agent "He was just rotten to me, I could have just smashed him!". You'd really need to see the picture to appreciate that comment fully, this sub-100 lb grandma-looking woman wearing a flowered blouse and a knit sweater wants to 'smash' an agent of the state.

OK, there should be plenty of questions popping up by now. For one, if this woman is a regular reader of the Wall Street Journal (enough so to catch an ad for a trip like this) how was she unaware of the embargo against Cuba and the horrible conditions of the country? Furthermore, why in the hell are there U.S. customs agents in airports that are 100+ miles outside the United States?

Angry at the whole situation, Ms. Ströbel has written some letters. One to the Wall Street Journal for having an ad that got her in so much trouble, and also one to Congressman Jim Barcia complaining about it. His office is none too surprised, because apparently she's a busybody who writes all sorts of letters to his office to complain about various things. Now I will quote the last three lines in the aforementioned article, because no paraphrase sufficiently does it justice:

Strobel says the travel ban on Cuba is unfair.
"What right does the United States have to tell us what we can do and what we can't do?" she said.

Priceless isn't it?

You'd think someone who is always writing letters to a Congressman would be at least cursorily aware that the United States government, by definition, tells us what to do. In fact, they do little else. At least now that she's noticed, she's wondering by what right they do this. I wonder if anyone has a good answer for her?

June 17, 2002