90 Miles

A country that almost seemed like it stopped in time, where people are still driving cars from the 50s, homes are dilapidated and children run barefoot. One sees how older men and women are worn out from years of servitude and those who are younger rebel against a government that displeases them. Many left seeking a better future for their family and saw their children grow up in the United States or became parents in the land of opportunity?

When Americans were part of that scenario and Hemingway had his house there, Cuba was prosperous. They loved vacationing in Cuba. The truth is you can't beat 90 miles from Florida. However, those of a generation passed away or grew older and to date have grandchildren and even great grandchildren.

The generation of their parents and grandparents never walked Cuba's beaches and felt that clear water of Varadero caress their feet, nor did they feel the scorching heat of the sun. That generation never gazed into a sky full of stars in Cuba and were enveloped by the warmth of that mystical night. They never looked out into the sea and were mesmermized by waves as serene as a sleeping baby or as furious as an erupting volcano letting them know, they too feel their pain.

The Tropicana is foreign to them, what they know they've heard from their parents or read in books. They're not familiar with Beny More, Cachao, Cienfuegos or Jose Marti. Their music is hip hop, pop, rock or a different genre. Their literature is American history, Washington, Franklin and Jefferson. Their knowledge of slavery is what was done to those from Africa, disregarding they're own background as being enslaved.

When they left, did they betray their country or was it the other way around? No one wants to be denied the right to go as you please, to travel, to be able to go into a store and buy whatever you want, not have things rationed out to you as if you were a child. No one wants to know that as citizens they were born in Cuba but beaches such as Varadero is only for tourists from Europe and Canada. No one wants to be denied the right to have access to the Internet or be monitored on a constant basis because big  brother is alive and well. It's better to indoctrinate a person into thinking how bad something is  before they get a taste of it and realize the years of propaganda that was fed to them; that was the real culprit for their misery.

The sad part of the equation is that people have been conditioned that way because in their mind they're being taken care of; free healthcare and education is quite appealing to them, but when a doctor makes 200+ a month that's an embarrassment after putting in all those years of studying only to graduate and have them tell you what you should earn, conversely when you exploit a person's illness by making money from them, that too is an embarrassment. What happened to the Hippocratic Oath? You become a doctor to heal because you love your profession, you want to help others not see it as a way to make money like it's become today.

The question is, with the United  States having relations, will things really change? Is it easy to forget the betrayal of the Bay of Pigs, and is it easy to forget how nuclear weapons were pointed in our direction? Is it easy to ignore the blockade that was put on that country for many years? They say it's time to move on, but don't forget those who perished at the hands of Castro's regime. Why else do you honor the lives every year of fallen soldiers in the United States? If we continue to ignore man's government, then you're ignoring the atrocities that has been committed to innocent people.

"I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking to even to direct his step." Jeremiah 10:23