Omitting Cuba

I've been giving it some thought, and though I quickly cooled down after Bush's omission of Cuba, I do find it hard to swallow that we as a nation are so intent on showing off our concern for the threats far across an ocean yet remain publically silent for the threats across our own Florida straits.

Does the mainstream US suffer from a political far sightedness to such a degree that the immediate local concerns of our nation and our neighbors become blurred?

I can't say that I'm too angry that Bush didn't say anything, Condi has always had something to say, and the USIS in Cuba is doing plenty to upset fidel. No, I'm not angry, but I am disappointed. We know that this current adminstration does not favor fidel. We know that there is a desire among many in this country to see Cuba freed from fidel's grip.

So why the fear? After all, fear is really the issue here. This is not about oil, or casinos, or US profit, but about a fear rooted in a deep anxiety that many in the US have over the great potential Cuba holds as a beacon and example of "Patria" -a country that one day can and will be, "con todos y para el bien de todos."

Many in the US Gov. are indeed aware of fidel's atrocities and do not want him in power. And it is this same people that have no clue on how to handle a Cuba with fidel -and communism- forever gone. And so we Cuban-Americans, Exiles, Cubiches, and people who hope for an authentic Cuba Libre sit and watch the political ping-pong soul searching that the US is going through. We watch with the utmost hope that the anxiety calms, that the fear turns to courage, and that the US understands it's duty to Democracy -not only to those country's across the Atlantic, but to those country's south of the straights.

Until the soul searching is over, the one sure thing that we can count on is that in the near future there will be more cases of Presidential speeches omitting Cuba.

Yet, in these cases let us not forget that silence is not always acquiescence, and if by some ill chance it is, then do keep in mind that a free Cuba WILL happen -regardless of the US. Freedom is inevitable. There is no great evil in this world that does not yield and vanish before a greater good. There is no, great enslavement that does not surge towards a greater redemption. If Jose Marti believed in the inevitability of freedom, then (regardless of what a US president said, or didn't say) how can we dare to doubt it?