A word about the death of Vaclav Havel

We learned in 2011 that Vaclav Havel died in the Czech Republic.  He was one of my Eastern European heroes because he stood up to communism:

"Born in 1936, the son of a rich building contractor, Havel was denied a good education after the communists seized power in 1948 and stripped the family of its wealth.
Despite having no higher degree, he began writing literary criticism in 1955. The first of his absurdist plays, whose characters often struggled to communicate in the empty language of communist-era rhetoric, debuted in 1963 in a more liberal era that was crushed by tanks in the 1968 Soviet-led invasion.
Havel's plays then disappeared in censors' vaults, and the author was forced into menial jobs such as rolling beer barrels."

It takes a lot of courage to stand up to a repressive communist state.  Yet, he did it and we appreciate that.  He was also one of the few Europeans who criticized Castro.  He was a true friend of anti-Castro Cubans, as Jorge Ponce wrote today.

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