This is the door that's taken more than five decades to open. Actually, President Barack Obama's call for normalizing relations with Cuba is more than a door; it's a historic opportunity.
There are good, practical reasons for normalizing relations, from better trade, especially given the recent upgrades at Cuba's harbor in Mariel; to environmental concern.
And it's clear that our nation's unilateral economic embargo has done nothing to create regime change--its purpose. Instead, it has been used by the Castro dictatorship as an excuse for the hardship brought on for Cuba's now 11 million people by decades of repressive and inept rule. Meanwhile, no other country has joined our effort to isolate the island.
A vast majority of Americans--and Cubans--weren't even born when the embargo took effect. Polls have shown a majority of Americans support normalizing relations with Cuba. And let's remember that America maintains diplomatic relations and trades with countries such as China, which could hardly be called a democracy, and Vietnam, with whom we waged war.
Cuba is not free or open, and reparations are long overdue for those who have lost so much. Change won't be easy, quick or painless. Our nation and Cuba have stark differences, and our contentious history will not be easily set aside.
Editorial on 12/19/2014