New beginning for Cuba

I returned from a week seeing three major Cuba cities: Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba.

I was a boy of 10 in 1962 when John Kennedy, Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev locked horns over the building of nuclear-armed missile sites on that island just 90 miles away from Florida. I remember elementary school teachers showing us ‘duck and cover’ emergency exercises for self-protection.

This week I saw many Cubans ready to welcome Americans with open arms who spoke of their love and devotion for their homeland and of their hopes that America and Cuba can have a long and profitable future, one that country sorely needs. Returning home, I had a great sense of fulfillment that I witnessed what could be the beginnings of something very monumental.

This story was originally published July 6, 2016 at 10:20 PM with the headline "New beginning for Cuba."