I’ve never understood the Cult of Che. At every peace protest I’ve attended, you can find dozens of the self-consciously hip sporting shirts bearing the iconic image of Che Guevara, a man directly responsible for murdering hundreds of people, and indirectly responsible for the deaths of many thousands. The embrace of Che and other totalitarian killers always made me wonder whether the peace protests were really about peace and nonviolence or whether some other ideological agenda was at play. After all, how could these pacifists be implicitly supporting murder by promoting the legacy of a murderer?

Now comes word that the New York Public Library is getting in on the act, selling watches bearing Che’s mug. According to The New York Sun:

The New York Public Library calls it a bit of “whimsical pop culture.” But to some local Cuban-Americans, the Che Guevara watch sold in the library’s gift shops is a symbol of evil.

“Revolution is a permanent state with this clever watch, featuring the classic romantic image of Che Guevara,” the library’s Web site says. A red star, trailed by the word “revolution,” measures seconds.

[...]

[Maria] Werlau, who was born in Cuba and moved to the United States as an infant, said she assumes the library “put this on their list of products because they were ignorant of who this man is.” She said popular culture has “made Guevara an icon of freedom, but he’s the opposite of that-the antithesis of freedom.” Most people who wear Che paraphernalia “have no idea he was a mass murderer,” Ms. Werlau said.

Ms. Werlau said the Free Society Project has a list of about 180 people for whose executions in Cuba Guevara was directly responsible, but the list doesn’t include what they estimate to be several undocumented cases - or people who lost their lives because of Guevara’s revolutionary activities throughout South America and Africa.

Ms. Werlau, comparing Ernesto Guevara’s legacy to those of other dictators and mass murderers, said: “He was dedicated to his ideals. But so were Hitler and Mussolini and Stalin.”

[...]

In 2002, the library received $201,920,000 in city, state, and federal funds.

It is upsetting that a taxpayer-supported public library is furthering the fetishizing of a murdering thug. Then again, it is sweetly ironic that this icon of communism has been embraced by the vulgar consumerism that capitalism encourages.