And
it was on Thursday that a bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate – with co-sponsorship
of Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. – that would ease the restrictions that prevent
U.S. citizens from being able to travel to the Caribbean island nation for
personal reasons.
YET
I’M NOT deluded enough to believe that the past half century of hostilities
between the two nations is at an end, nor that I’ll be able to spend a wad of
cash on Cuban-made cigars as a gift (I personally find cigar smoke to be repulsive)
for anyone anytime soon.
Even
though I have been long of the belief that a restoration of relations between
the United States and Cuba makes only too much sense for both nations, and that
the only reasons for maintaining the tensions is the ideological hang-ups whose
time has long passed.
There
are many Midwestern agriculture interests and other companies that would love
to do business with Cuban interests – their financial bottom line would stand
to benefit from easing the restrictions placed by our government out of the
belief that they would cause the economic downfall of the regime maintained by
the Castro brothers.
They
haven’t; not really!
CUBA
IS AN economically strapped nation; but the hardships have done nothing but feed
into the propaganda that places blame on the United States for the poverty
endured by many Cuban natives.
Or
at least those Cubans who haven’t managed to slip out of the country and into
the United States, where they now put up with myriad restrictions on what they
can send “back home” to their relatives remaining on the island.
Currently,
the only travel back and forth between the two nations is for people with
special purposes, and there are limits on the amount of money they can spend on
such trips.
So
it is with all that in mind that I find the Freedom to Travel to Cuba act to be
refreshing. It was introduced in the Senate, with Durbin being one of eight
sponsors – four each from the Democratic and Republican caucuses.
A
SIMILAR BILL is expected to be introduced next week in the House of
Representatives, according to the Washington Post, which also reports that the
bill would not do away with the trade embargo that has been in place for
50-plus years.
And
with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, saying the Republican House majority
has no intention of lifting that embargo anytime soon, it means the full
restoration of relations truly is decades away.
It
definitely will not be something that occurs during the Obama Administration.
Heck, I’m coming up on 50 years of age, and I wonder if I will still be alive
to see the days when I can theoretically catch a flight out of O’Hare and go
straight to Jose Marti International Airport for a Caribbean vacation.
Or
perhaps the day when the Cuban government, with an embassy in Washington, D.C.,
may also decide it needs a presence in the form of a Chicago consulate. Heck,
if the mainland China government can have a consulate (at 1 E. Erie St. in the
upscale River North neighborhood), why can’t Cuba?
I’M
NOT SAYING I’m intending to be on the first regular flight out. But it always
just seemed odd that a government that is able to get along with the bulk of
the rest of the world remains a pariah to the United States.
Particularly
when about the only thing most of us know about Cubans for real is all the quality
ballplayers who have slipped into this country to play professionally here –
including Chicago White Sox slugger Jose Abreu, who could wind up being the
ultimate nightmare of Chicago Cubs fans if his hitting leads the White Sox to another
championship before the Cubs can achieve anything!
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment