Cuban-American Progressive's Message to Obama

[magbana]

While I wish that Amaury Cruz' last paragraph spoke more to the advantages of normalization between US and Cuba to be in the exchange of ideas, cultural perspectives, humanitarian approaches, and technical advances, instead of "free markets" and the "Cuban workforce" I think he has produced a well-thought approach to getting Obama's attention. Of course, the forces urging Obama to do the exact opposite of what Cruz is recommending are far mightier and threatening.



PROGRESO WEEKLY
March 13 - March 19, 2008
A Cuban-American progressive’s message to Obama
By Amaury Cruz

http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=387&Ite
mid=1

Dear Senator Obama:

There are many things Cuban-American progressive Democrats should
like to tell you about dealing with Cuba-related issues. The first is
that as most other Americans, we thirst for a leader who, to quote
you, says what he means and means what he says. You have said things
that give us hope for positive changes in U.S.-Cuba relations.

You should listen to the progressive point of view. You are a
progressive. Why should you heed reactionaries? We know they will try
to ply you with huge campaign donations to advance their retrograde
and pernicious views. But you don’t need them to win the presidency,
nor should you associate with them and betray your principles.

Cuba issues are convenient constructs of the Republican propaganda
machine used to win elections, both local and national. If Cuba and
the U.S. had normal relations, the Republican machine would not have
at its disposal tens of millions of dollars that have been doled out
to organizations, academic institutions, and projects dominated by
Republicans and financing Republicans. Harebrained schemes like TV
and Radio Marti would not exist; neither would the sinecures they
provide. Cuban-Americans would not be debating how best to overthrow
a foreign government or assassinate its leader, focusing instead on
issues that affect all Latinos in the U.S. and that the Democratic
party is better able to address. Local, state and national office
seekers would not be able to manipulate a significant block of
single-issue voters through cheap stunts like drinking espresso in a
Little Havana restaurant once every four years and proclaiming they
will be the ones to liberate the island nation.

You will find that almost all the media will be more or less
obviously at the service of the Republicans, and that includes the
major English- and Spanish language papers in Miami. In some cases,
radio talk shows and weeklies called periodiquitos (little papers)
will savage you. These media outlets are all controlled by the
Cuban-American extreme right thanks to a campaign of intimidation and
McCarthyism that has lasted over four decades and has been made
possible because of the continued hostility between the two
countries. You should not be afraid to confront them with logic and
reason. Their power arises simply from people’s ignorance and fears.

You should understand that older Cuban-American hard-line exiles,
also called los históricos (the historic ones) and others who have
been bombarded by the periodiquitos and talk shows during decades are
concerned only about one particular type of change they want in Cuba.
They couldn’t care less for the type of fundamental change you
represent. Some of your opponents also will be unrepentant racists
and will not hesitate to inject racism into the political discourse
through innuendo and code words.

None of the históricos and many others who have been brainwashed by
the Republicans into thinking that Kennedy, and therefore all
Democrats, betrayed Cuban-Americans at the Bay of Pigs, will vote for
you no matter how much you try to win them over. If you promise them
to invade Cuba the week after your inauguration, they will still not
vote for you. They will not believe anything you say. To them, you
are already a communist, a fifth columnist who somehow managed to
infiltrate the U.S. senate. Sound crazy? Welcome to South Florida.

I don’t know if by blind luck or design your campaign has stumbled on
the idea that you must focus your courtship on younger Cuban-American
voters, rendering the históricos history. Whichever it is, you are on
the right track. Polls show that more recent Cuban-American arrivals
and younger people in general increasingly favor normalization of
relations with Cuba. These people have not been motivated to vote in
the past. You can motivate them.

I like that you have been able to turn around your opponents’ attacks
and have not hesitated to strike back quickly and correct the record,
with humor and creativity. You have broken the stereotype of the
wimpish Democratic politician. I congratulate you. You must keep it
up, even in the face of some who will tell you that you need to
pander to the Cuban-American right. Sadly, this would include some
Democratic representatives in Congress who have behaved shamefully
and betrayed the party and the nation. They too have spread the myth
of a monolithic Cuban-American voting block and sold out to the right
wingers and their fat wallets.

Much like the issues of abortion and gay marriage, Cuba issues are a
way to divert attention from important problems facing America.
Cuba issues are used to spread fear and misinformation and for our
government to suppress fundamental rights of a free people: to
travel, to associate with and support one’s family and friends, and
to exchange and express ideas. Suppressing such rights and fostering
a climate of fear, where the government is seen as the protector of
our security, makes us more pliable. It has made a significant
segment of the Cuban-American community fanatical and easy to
manipulate through false promises and empty gestures, even at the
expense of the national interest and self-interest.

Among other things, by redefining the concept of “family,” the Bush
administration in essence has cut off forever uncles, aunts, nephews,
and nieces from each other. And even fathers, mothers, sons and
daughters, can only be visited once every three years, no exceptions
of any kind permitted. Equally harmful, remittances to relatives are
limited to $300 every three months. What kind of family values are
these?

Were it not for the sea or irrationality surrounding our Cuba
policies, which has inured people to its absurdities, most would
realize these travel and remittances regulations are cruel and
demented. Nothing like them applies to any other country in the
world.

You have done the right thing by promising to allow free travel and
remittances by Cuban-Americans. Your position represents a defense of
real family values.

But there is more to doing the right thing when it comes to Cuba, and
we believe you have fallen a bit short. You should return to your
original position, prior to becoming a presidential candidate,
against the embargo. It is a patently failed policy, and only the
fanaticism of six Cuban-American members of Congress and specious
arguments keep it alive.

You are right in your disposition to meet with Cuban leaders without
preconditions relative to Cuba’s political system or policies.
To impose preconditions is to perpetuate an arrogant and
holier-than-thou attitude that has seriously damaged American
diplomatic standing. After all, Cuba or any other country in the
world could ask us also to meet preconditions relative to our system
of government or policies: renounce torture and prosecute those
responsible for waterboarding at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib; end
disparities in the prosecution and jailing of blacks and Latinos in
our criminal justice system; reform our electoral system so that
money is not determinative; and provide universal health care and
free higher education to all Americans, to name only a few. As anyone
with any sense can see, to demand preconditions can lead to
absurdities. You need to explain this to the American people.

You also need to explain that our policy toward Cuba should not be
regime change through the pressure cooker theory: that, by making
conditions ever more intolerable for the Cuban people, they will rise
up in revolt and overthrow the government. I hope you will agree that
this theory is immoral and counterproductive. Our policy should be to
help the Cuban people and to defend our real national interests, not
to destroy a country in order to save it.

You should reject the notion that preventing trade between our
nations hurts the Cuban government. The embargo hurts the Cuban
people while the Cuban government goes its merry way. You could point
to the fact that we trade with China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Egypt
and other countries that are led by repressive regimes and that
engagement was a key element in bringing down the old Soviet empire,
not an economic embargo. You could point to the fact the overwhelming
majority of Cuban dissidents on the island oppose the embargo, and
that the U.N. has been condemning it every year for decades, nearly
unanimously.

The embargo, therefore, not only hurts the Cuban people and has been
ineffective in bringing about one iota of positive change; it is also
a source of aggravation for the U.S. in international fora,
particularly for its imperial, extra-national provisions. You could
add that our government has not been very successful at imposing our
political system on other countries through force or unilateral
pressure.

You should emphasize our national interest is best served by
normalizing relations to open markets for American farmers and
ranchers; allow U.S. companies to compete with Chinese and European
companies for Cuba’s increasingly abundant oil and gas reserves; help
combat narcotrafficking; help re-unite families after decades of
painful separation; and offer a tremendous opportunity for American
enterprises to invest in all kinds of businesses and take advantage
of Cuba’s highly educated workforce, among other things.

We know you can do it. Please don’t let us down.

Amaury Cruz is a Cuban-American attorney and political activist from
Miami.

[EFerrari]

1. Maybe we should get a bunch of us together and write a pamphlet

for Obama.

I really enjoyed this, Cruz has a good sense of humor. And it may be that the issue of re-unification (in its many forms) will resonate with Obama in a way it wouldn't with a different individual.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Hope he reads this message from an intelligent Cuban American.

You should not be afraid to confront them with logic and
reason. Their power arises simply from people’s ignorance and fears.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He could turn this around, if he found the courage to step away from these assholes, and forget them altogether. It's time to put them behind us permanently.

Progressive Cuban Americans should start exerting themselves far more from now on. They are the only ones who can bring any honor to that community, and turn this wicked persecution of, and loathesome acts of terrorism against Cuba around.