Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama meet at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City on April 11. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Associated Press file)
Re: “After Obama’s thaw, a bad year for freedom in Cuba,” Dec. 19 Charles Lane column.
Charles Lane characterizes President Obama’s initiative toward normalization with Cuba as “magical thinking.” Perhaps it is magical thinking to imagine that a Republican-controlled Congress would ever stop flogging the communist bogeyman long enough to actually take a fair and honest look at a policy that repeatedly failed in its stated objective of transforming the nature of this poor little island’s government.
Lane avers that freedoms are severely compromised in Cuba. Since when has that ever been a reason for the U.S. to withdraw aid or commerce from a country? We are currently now giving massive aid to countries that have much worse human rights records than Cuba.
I just got back from Cuba. I was mostly astonished by what I didn’t see. I didn’t see any homeless. This is a population that has a commitment to taking care of its people. I didn’t see any advertising. I saw very little pollution.
I guess Lane is right — they don’t share our values, not all of them anyway. In China, the country that Lane contrasts with Cuba, they are poisoning themselves with their own effluents.
Cuba is right to be wary of its giant neighbor. Lane better get all his Cuba bashing in quickly. As the country opens up and more Americans visit the country, his mindless demonizing will start to sound rather tinny.
Steve Milligan, Colorado Springs
This letter was published in the Dec. 26 edition.
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