You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
Cuba our friend?
It’s a tropical mirage, floating on our horizon, calling to us like a capricious sea-nymph.
Cuba our new Caribbean buddy? It’s hard to believe.
Is this an enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of thing?
Or has the geo-political game just changed?
Sunday morning I turn on the nightly news and suddenly I’m being told that the USA is normalizing relations with Cuba.
I am hearing how our little brown brother to the South is soon to be our friend, our trading partner, a new spring break destination for thousands of drunk college kids.
Cuba our friend?
That’s like calling the mailman having relations with your wife a friend.
For 55 years, Cuba has been the regime 90 miles away where Communism flourishes and human rights violations fester.
Nestled between the Bahamas, Jamaica, Haiti and Cancun, it’s a tropical wet dream.
Maybe your great grandparents remember the time when Cuba was a gambling hot spot and the perfect place to quaff the perfect mojito.
But for the rest of us, Cuba is gum on your shoe, spit in your eye, sand in your ointment.
We’ve ignored them, sanctioned them, sent their boat people home.
Trying to ignore Cuba, with a trade wind of deliciousness blowing up its skirt, is like trying to ignore a Victoria’s Secret model asking for a back rub.
And now I’m being told Cuba is our friend?
What do you think of when you think of Cuba?
The Bay of Pigs? The Cuban Missile Crisis? Human rights atrocities?
I think of 50’s clunker automobiles and thick exhaust smoke and banana boats full of stow-a-ways seeking freedom.
That’s the Cuba I remember.
For 50 plus years, Cuba has been an island enemy loitering off our shores.
Cuba is annoying like the panhandler at the end of the freeway ramp with his hand out.
Just 90 miles from Key West, Cuba can smell freedom on a tropical trade wind.
The USA shines in the Cuban night calling to its people like a steel drum. It reminds them that in the time it takes to compete in a salsa dance marathon, they could be inhaling lady liberty.
And now Cuba is our friend?
Cuba represents Castro and Missiles and refugees washing ashore.
Cuba is Guantanamo and Communism and a fractured economy.
I turn on the news and the breaking headline:
USA and CUBA NORMALIZING RELATIONS.
Huh? What does that mean?
It catches me off guard. Why is Cuba now our friend.
The announcer chirps: For the 1st time since the Cold War, two nations are about to turn the page on history.
President Obama and Raul Castro had a historic meeting in Panama.
The two men sat down for 1 on 1 talks trying to move past 50 years of animosity and renew diplomatic relations.
While Castro and Obama talk, you can hear the shutter of cameras pulsing and the bright lights of the flashes freezing the monumental moment in time.
“This is a historic meeting” Obama said
If ever there was an understatement? This is 1st time leaders of cuba and USA have had a meeting in 5 decades.
“over time it is possible for us to turn the page and normalize relations between our two countries,” Obama added.
Castro says he will discuss all issues.
The announcer calls this a “thaw in relations.”
Obama say “The USA will not be imprisoned by the past looking to the future and policies that enhance the lives of Cuban people and advance the interests of cooperation in the hemisphere.”
Castro calls Obama honest, then goes on a rant unleashing a long list of Cuban grievances against the USA.
He blames other US presidents for that, not Obama.
Now roll me a Cuban, Castro.
Maybe Castro should take responsibility for the 50 years of sanctions by owning up to the human rights indecencies.
Fidel Castro was a dictator. He enjoyed Cuban cigars, baseball and murdering people who opposed him.
Raul is cut from the same cloth.
Now the Castro regime wants to climb into bed with America?
Whatever.
Let bygones be bygones.
I say it’s time to open the door to tourism and travel and exchange of cultures.
Like the homeless man at the end of the highway ramp, humping for a dollar, it’s time for Cuba to get a job and let capitalism spill across your shores.
Life’s crazy™