Tasting freedom

Establishing normal ties and lifting the embargo is how liberty and political freedom will come to Cuba. The United States cannot impose its will on the sovereign nation but, instead, can help Cubans help themselves.

When I hear right-wing Cuban exiles criticizing President Obama for meeting with a dictator while helpless Cuban freedom seekers are dying on makeshift rafts, I feel shame. We, who have reached the shores of America and have tasted freedom, must do more than criticize the actions of this president to support our brothers and sisters who remain shackled by political oppression. The embargo is a dismal failure. I understand that we do not want to engage with the dictatorship, but if we rely on the embargo, only the passing of time and the inevitable aging of the Castro brothers will end this regime.

The media, the inevitable growth of capitalism in Cuba once the embargo is lifted and the inexorable thirst of the Cuban people for freedom they can see and almost taste, will nourish the tree of liberty in Cuba.

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 8:50 PM with the headline "Tasting freedom."