Help End the Cuban Embargo
When my dad and aunts were young, their parents would often travel the
ninety miles back to Cuba to visit relatives. There were even flights
that ran from Key West to Havana. But that era is long over. Almost 50 years have passed since the U.S. initiated its first embargo on Cuba in 1960, claiming that punishing the island nation with isolation would help push a human-rights agenda there and restore capitalist democracy.
Um, as we know, it hasn't quite worked out that way.
The new U.S. administration seems open to revising our relationship with Cuba in ways that will be productive and humane for both countries, and it has already lifted some restrictions for U.S. citizens visiting relatives and/or sending remittances there.
I've never signed a petition that would show up on a sailboat before, but when President Obama attends the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago this weekend with Latin American leaders, international peace organization Avaaz will sail a sailboat with the number of petition-signers painted on its sail. To check out the petition to lift the Cuban embargo and see if you want to sign, go here.
Um, as we know, it hasn't quite worked out that way.
The new U.S. administration seems open to revising our relationship with Cuba in ways that will be productive and humane for both countries, and it has already lifted some restrictions for U.S. citizens visiting relatives and/or sending remittances there.
I've never signed a petition that would show up on a sailboat before, but when President Obama attends the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago this weekend with Latin American leaders, international peace organization Avaaz will sail a sailboat with the number of petition-signers painted on its sail. To check out the petition to lift the Cuban embargo and see if you want to sign, go here.
Mary K
said:
Cuba is a beautiful island and the people are warm and welcoming. The embargo hasn't done anything as far as I can see. I haven't been back in thirty years, but the generosity and openness of the people I met there has stayed with me--along with the wonderful beer, a drink not unlike Cel-Ray, meeting Wallace Stevens' friend, Jose Rodriguez Feo, at the Writers' Union, ice cream of all flavors, dancing into the night, and the stars above (off kilter to me the North American as I lay on the beach during the night looking up, wondering about the riot of lights above). It is time to be good neighbors.
April 17, 2009 11:31 AMM. Robinson said:
While I am sure that the people of Cuba are as warm & beautiful as anywhere, their only hope for liberty is to exercise a cold & brutal end to the tyranny of the Castro brothers - by ending the Castro brothers. While pacifist measures (ie: embargo) have not worked in ending Cuban enslavement, it has choked off some of the money Fidel & Raul have used to enrich themselves. US sanctions are not responsible for Cuba's economic and humanitarian ills - Fidel Castro is. The people of Cuba must take back their country by rising up and removing Fidel & his colostomy bag by force. Lest another generation or two also live in the fetters of his communist dystopia.
How many other countries besides the US impose sanctions on Cuba? Exactly. You cannot blame the US.
By lifting certain restrictions, this US Administration will only sustain the zombie and prolong the suffering. The Cuban people must solve this problem & end their nightmare.
April 24, 2009 6:16 PM