Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Witness to history once again

I have just watched President Obama's speech to the nation announcing normalization of our relations with Cuba and have just realized that once again I was watching a defining motion in history that will begin to unfold in the coming weeks and months.

I have watched on TV as the Berlin Wall fell, as the two Germanys reunified as a single nation and finally gain full sovereignty after the final peace treaty between the WW2 allied powers and Germany finally was signed in 1991.  Just a short span of months later, the Soviet Union dissolved and the Cold War finally ended.  And of course, there is September 11, 2001...

Now with the prospect of normal relations between Cuba and the United States opening new opportunities for both us and the Cuban people, it would be fascinating to watch and see how things would unfold going forward.  The only fly in the ointment would be how intransigent our Congress and the Cuban-American community would be in allowing this to come about, for they see this as allowing a restrictive regime to remain in power and keep oppressing the Cuban people.

Obama did give the classic definition of insanity in describing how the last 53 years of the embargo have not achieved the desired results that Eisenhower and Kennedy had intended.

 Now it is time to see whether there are true changes blowing up from Havana and if we are truly seeing a new chapter unfold.

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