Unfreezing our Relations w/Cuba: It’s about Time!

Those who decry the change that President Obama has put forward respecting our nation’s relationship with Cuba are either blinded by their grudge against the Castro brothers (admittedly a justifiable grudge) or are too politically motivated to see the sense in it—or both.

Time changes things, and it’s time for change.  It’s reasonable.  It makes sense.  The time has come.  At face value, this seems to be a good, positive and constructive direction for our nation to take in relation to Cuba.

Sure, there are no guarantees.  Not everything will go smoothly.  That’s a given.  But, it’s worth the risk.  The positive future-potential for our two nations, far outweighs the negative present status quo.  For there is much more hope for what could be, than there is for what has been or for what now is, between us.

And that is what is needed and wanted in our national politics.  Instead of being knee-jerk reactive—negative, scornful, accusatory, judgmental, arrogant, and proudly stand-offish, we need more rational, constructive, positive, and hopeful responses toward engagement.

The irony here is that the very people who espouse and defend high moral values—goodness, justice, integrity, honesty, respect for others and their rights, and so-on and so-forth, are often the first to subvert these values in favor of hatred, revenge, retribution, and the seeking of a tooth for tooth or blood for blood in hard hearted retaliation—the opposite of what Jesus Himself commands us!  Says Jesus, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”  (See Matthew 5:43-48.)

It is never a bad thing nor is it ever wrong thinking to seek to mend broken relationships, or to build bridges toward the making of more peaceful relations.  Hatred begets hatred.   Revenge begets revenge.  Spite begets spite.  An open hand, a helping hand, a forgiving and conciliatory hand refreshes, renews, and builds.  And so, yes, this is a good and positive direction for our nation to take, respecting our relationship with Cuba.