Usually I write about something that relates to someone close to me and it comes with a very personal touch. Today I am modifying that a bit. This morning as I was getting ready to come into the office, the television caught my attention when President Obama was announcing that relations between the United States and Cuba were to be normalized.
I am aware that “normalized” can mean a lot or nothing in the political world. However, I am honestly excited, happy and hopeful that this normalization process can bring together two countries that have been foes for far too long.
His usual opponents are already launching criticism at the President and there is much uncertainty with regards to how this new foreign policy approach with the island of Cuba will work out.
However, the fact that a President of the United States has finally come out and said he is willing to have a relationship with the neighboring island is great. Putting aside the financial benefits that this new era in Cuban-American relations should generate, I am happy that millions of Cuban families will be able to reunite with loved ones still on the island.
The Cuban Revolution and everything that has followed has made life for people in Cuba horrible enough that many prefer to risk dying on a raft to escape the regime. I am fortunate enough to not know what that experience is like but I have been blessed with Cuban friends who can share personal anecdotes. To hear some of those stories is heartbreaking, sometimes inspiring and at many times frustrating that not far from the Florida coast exist a nation with people yearning for the old regime to go away.
My best friend Robert is of Cuban heritage. His grandmother left the island and came to America and started over; like millions of Americans of Cuban heritage, she hasn’t been back since and who knows if she really desires to pay a visit.
So knowing that the political steps will be taken that will allow for Cuban families to reunite, and that would give older individuals who fled Cuba a chance to revisit their land of birth is remarkable.
I was lucky enough to be born in America. For the most part, I can travel to any corner of the world and no matter what, I can buy a plane ticket and come home. I can’t even fathom the idea of not being allowed entry into my birth country because I decided to live somewhere else.
Furthermore, it is heartbreaking to know that there are Cubans in Miami, just 90 miles away from their birth land, yet they can’t go visit. This move in diplomatic relations between the nations is long overdue.
