A law professor of mine once told me that the Cubans in Florida can be nasty if you are the guy who happens to disagree with them about Cuba or Castro. Professor Coll knew this to be true because he had made the mistake of questioning America’s embargo against the Cuban people. He said that the embargo only hurts the poor in Cuba with little effect on the regime. I had heard that before, but his statement rang strong with me because Coll was not the typical leftist cat who loves Castro’s cojones vis-à-vis the United States. His father was jailed by Don Fidel; so, he’s the last guy to defend him. Yet Coll admired the truth enough to anger a lot of people. Read more about his story here.
I admit that I sometimes have been the guy to admire Fidel Castro’s testicular fortitude from a far (I’m still evaluating Raul!). But whether you love him or hate him, there is no evidencewhatsoever that the embargo does anything to spread Democracy in Cuba. The partial lift on the embargo that the Obama administration announced on Monday was a great step in getting rid of our ridiculous policy against the Cuban poor. Yet the lifting of restrictions for Cuban-Americans does not go far enough. The embargo still stands. If people really want Democracy to flourish in Cuba, then it has to win the hearts and minds of Cubans in an open marketplace of ideas. I know that the Cuban government may not reciprocate, but what do we gain by digging our own heels in? What Milton said said long ago about the press applies equally to our doctrinal posturing with Cuba:
“Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we do ingloriously…to misdoubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grapple; who ever knew truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?”
–John Milton, Areopagitica Speech, 1644
There is nothing more powerful than getting to know people and sharing information with them about how you live. Only by letting all Americans see Cuba for what it is and vice versa, will the truth prevail. Not Castro’s truth, not America’s truth but the Truth and nothing but the Truth in all her glory.
Cockroach People 