Thursday, July 08, 2004

Cuba: Why not ask Castro to release the chains?

I guess it's easier for Cubans and everybody to bitch at the U.S. After all, there's no price to be paid for dissenting from U.S. policy.

Another Cuban "hero" speaks out against the "unfair" U.S. policy on travel to Cuba. I'll have more respect for Cubans when they turn their invective on Castro and demand that he tear down the walls of communism imprisoning all Cubans.

HAVANA · A group of musicians on Wednesday criticized new U.S. regulations that will further limit travel to Cuba, urging the United States to build bridges to the island instead of tearing them down.
...
"The day that the U.S. government intensifies its attacks on our country, on Cuba, is the same day that our response is to send more songs, to send more music, to send more love, to send more solidarity," said Pablo Menendez, founder of the Afro-Cuban fusion band Mezcla and a U.S. citizen who has lived in Cuba nearly 40 years.
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The U.S. rules, which tighten a U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, went into effect Wednesday. They aim to squeeze the island's economy and push out President Fidel Castro by sharply reducing Cuba-bound dollars from the United States and limiting visits by cultural and academic groups as well as Cuban-Americans to the island.
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The policies have made it difficult for Cuban musicians to obtain visas to perform on U.S. soil. Despite Washington's policies, some artists here said they hoped for change.

"Everyone knows that these measures are unsustainable," said Amaury Perez, a Cuban trova singer.
You know what's the sad part about all this Cuban whining about the new U.S. policy? It is dismissive of the heroic efforts of all those who have stood up against Castro and suffered for it in his jails; all those who died demanding change from Castro; all those who took a chance and fled across the seas when their prison became intolerable; all those who had the courage of their convictions and looked inward to see the source of Cuba's misery, rather than outward to blame another country.

It's not the job of the U.S. government to make life easy for the Cuban dictator by implementing policies that will make his people enjoy their bondage more than they currently are doing so. Yet, Cubans seem to think that is what the U.S. government ought to do. It's the U.S.'s intention to help Cubans throw off the chains that bind them; however, Cubans seem to have grown to love their fetters.

With that mindset, freedom, when it comes, will not be appreciated. Thus the way will be paved for another dictator to give people hell.

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