Ending the embargo on Cuba

While most of us have no problem seeing our families during the holidays, the story has been quite different for Cuban-Americans.

Until now.

President Barack Obama recently made a move to end restrictions on Cuban-

Americans from visiting and sending money to relatives.
From there, Obama left the ball in Raul Castro’s court, saying it was up to Havana to make the next move.

Castro then surprised everyone by responding very quickly and with open arms. Castro has offered to speak directly with the U.S. government on an assortment of issues, ranging from human rights to freedom of the press.

Indiana’s Sen. Dick Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that the actions we have taken with Cuba haven’t worked. We couldn’t agree with him more.

For 43 years, our nation has had a trade embargo with Cuba. Our government dragged it out for this long hoping the embargo would lead to a change in Cuba’s government.

But the embargo has not produced a regime with better views on human rights.

Forty-three years later, here we are. Cuba is still run by the Castros and the country is, just now, opening the floor to speak.

These talks with Castro can’t come soon enough. Looking back from today, it’s hard to see why we didn’t try to reestablish a relationship with Cuba.

When you have a problem and the current situation obviously isn’t working, a reasonable person would try another method to solve said problem.

By letting old grudges drag out for so long, both our government and Cuba’s are starting to realize that these problems could have at least been discussed years ago.

If the United States has any chance of having a future relationship with Cuba, now is the time to act. Waiting around another 43 years just won’t cut it.