Message to the Right-winger Regarding Cuba/American Relations: Come off of it!
I was reading a series of stories in the news today, July 29, 2011, regarding proposed legislation from an ethnic Cuban, a GOP legislator representing South Florida who wants to tighten interactive commerce and travel between the United States and Cuba. I was under the impression that the Obama administration had a goal of relaxing these restrictions between our nation and Cuba.
My question is why are keeping up any restrictions to travel and commerce after so much time has passed still such a hot button for rightwing politics? This has to be viewed by the world as silly, Canadians and Europeans have fully accepted Cuba as a member of the family of nations, while we sit on the side lines and pout. I would not hazard to guess the amount of rightwing dictators we have backed in South America over much of the last century. We mouth the concept of ‘self determination of people’, but obviously that does not trump the economic or political expedient goals for our foreign policy in the region. It is an embarrassment to me as American and should be a source of shame to us all. Please note the following quote:
“I believe that there is no other country in the world including any and all countries under colonial domination where economic colonization, exploitation and humiliation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country’s policies during the Batista regime. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries. That is perfectly clear” President Kennedy comments to Jean Daniel, French/Jewish Journalist on October 24, 1963 (Source Wikipedia)
We are quite complicit and that says it all for me. Mr. Kennedy was wise enough to recognize our role in contributing to conditions that prompted revolution in Cuba, and admit to it. Could you imagine G.W. Bush or Ronald Reagan doing the same? Everybody knew that President Kennedy was no cream puff as the consummate cold warrior, as is evident in his superb brinkmanship during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was not unduly sympathetic to the emergence of this Communist Cuba, but having truly PROGRESSIVE credentials, was honest and open enough to admit our errors in bringing this regime to fruition.
Well, we are 50 years down the road since the “Bay of Pigs” disaster of 1961. The Soviet Union is no more; we have relations with North Korea and are now playing cozy in bed with COMMUNIST China. So how does this little relatively impoverished island, 90 miles south of Florida continue to be this threat to our national security? I am not interested in the opinion of a couple of right wing Cubans that want to have our entire foreign policy held hostage, chasing ghosts. Compared with so many of the tyrants in the Middle East and elsewhere with whom we routinely find ourselves in bed, Castro is a teddy bear. There is no longer any need in the face of the company we never object to keeping to continue to subject the world and the Cuban people to this eternal pi**ing contest. Why can’t we just move on? What I abhor about the right-winger is his penchant for calling "Communist" anyone seeking political and economic parity for their society.. We did the same thing in Guatemala, in 1954, removing and subverting democratically elected governments in favor of tyrants because they were willing to allow economic exploitation of their people and industries and were willing to play the geo-political cold war games on our side. They have this attitude much like the adult telling a child that what is perfectly acceptable for me is forbidden for you. I hate hypocrisy and double standards and it disturbs the karma of my libby heart. The right-winger needs to be reminded that any bully can and will be defeated with the objections of enough of its adversaries that are tired of being lorded over. It is natural for anyone to find a work around for some entity who wishes to keep you in a vulnerable condition. If you want to lead, lead by example. Let your good example move others to act. That correctly applies to all things.
If the rightwinger says that I am naïve with my desire to neither be a slave nor have a part in enslaving others, then I am proud to be a liberal/progressive.
