We Don’t Know ! What, We Don’t Know !

Not The Only One!
Post# 66
16 Feb. 23
We don’t know !
What
We don’t know!
Hey again family and thanks once again for being there. I almost called this one ignorance is bliss, but I’m saving that for another time down the road. This should probably have been called we don’t care about what we don’t know. I think I have shared a time or two that I really love history. I have been a faithful fan of some of the era’s gone by. Some of history is just to fascinating, not to pay homage to it. Much of romanticism with history is surrounded by wars, especially the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and of course the great War to end all wars, and that was supposed to be World War II , I didn’t give it that great distinction and we know that there have been quite a few armed conflicts since the war to end all wars . I’m not offering any disrespect to Vietnam, but I feel as if we weren’t in that one to win it, and much the same could be said to be true about both Gulf conflicts . It’s as if we grew a continuous, and by definition , War is war , and there has always been a loss of innocent life, collateral damage, or the deaths of non combatants. In times gone by we recognized that people on the home front, supported the war effort and we did target factories and supply chains where civilians worked, but somehow now we want to exclude them from the war efforts. While we have become softer, and the media coverage has intensified, the enemy has changed as well. The war on Terror, is an on going thing and will probably see no end to because it is not a set country that flies a flag, or a clear recognizable uniform, but its a war of ideologies, that also has different and moving thought processes depending on who you are talking to , as well as talking about. I think that it was Rush Limbaugh that said for most people, history starts on the day that they were born, and on some level that is a true statement for many people. The reference here is that most people remember things that happen within there life time, and that is not even true some of the time. If you don’t study or love history, then much can escape our recent memory. I believe that I need to beg for forgiveness here, because I have gone on for a little bit , and not gotten to the subject at hand, however it is not without history of its own. I want to talk about our neighbors to the south of us. No, I’m not talking about Mexico, but our friends down in the Caribbean and that is Cuba. I think most people don’t give much thought to Cuba, much like myself. If you want to talk about a tangled mess that has been going on for over six decades, then this is it. I think for myself and probably for a lot of you as well, when we think about the Caribbean it usually boils down to a cruise, or sending money to help from the latest hurricane to breeze through. Much of what I’m going to say is deeply enriched in history, be it good or bad. You can fact check me on Google or Wikipedia, but I also bring a unique insight from with a personal source from within Cuba. Some of you may be old enough to remember the Cuban missiles crisis, and the whole Bay of pigs thing, but most probably not. I don’t have time to go all into it because it is a little bit more complicated than it appears on the surface, and to be honest, you would have to go back to the second world War, when Russia went from being an ally against the Germans and Hitler, and Germany being divided into East and west Germany. I would have to throw in a couple of evil dictators as well as a revolution or two. If you think that I’m taking this from some great novel such as ” War and Peace” ,you would be incorrect, but it would make a great accompanying volume . So , how did Russia go from be an ally to becoming what most of us knew as the superpower of the cold war for decades? . I wish that there was one single clear cut answer to that question, but there is not. One of the biggest reasons is because during the war to end all wars, Russia took very heavy casualties to make it a two front war. This meant that Hitler had to fight the allies from the west as well as the Russian from the east. At the time Russia was very far behind in technology and sophistication with weaponry and much of their forces were slaughtered at the hands of the Germans. They felt as if they weren’t supported or respected and much of this ill will, led up to what we knew as the cold war. Here we are again with the word tentacles, but probably very appropriate. When we try to figure out how Cuba fits into all of this, it is much like a tangled web of confusion. In fact part of our history post civil war, comes into play. I believe that the civil war ended in or around 1865, and for more or less, there was a new sheriff in town. This is an extreme readers digest version, because we know that African Americans continued to struggle for well over the next century and many of them continued on in the south as share croppers, which was just another form of exploitation, many times on the same plantations that they were supposed to be liberated from. America is a capitalist country and where ever there is a buck to be made, someone will surely sniff it out. So, in the early 1900s, we turned our attention to Cuba, and it’s resources, primarily sugar Cane at the time, but not solely. Many are unaware of this but America had a significant interest and presence in Cuba up until the revolution of 1959 ,that brought Fidel Castro to power. The U.S, went from a favorable regime to one that was not so much! Fast forward to a dominoes effect of debacles, one after the other. The U.S didn’t take kindly to be giving the boot by Fidel and they supported an invasion to undermine and over throw the new dictator, as something that became known as the ” Bay of Pigs”. This was poorly planned and executed, and crippled by poor intelligence work on behalf of the CIA. When Fidel came to power, his two great edits were that Cuba was communist and that it was Atheist. The Bay of Pigs lead us to the Cuban missiles crisis, which is probably the closest we have ever come to nuclear war. The Soviets offered to put ballistic missiles in Cuba as a deterrent to prevent America from attempting to invade Cuba again . This was basically allowing them to put nuclear capability in the USAs backyard and that was unacceptable. This lead to the largest naval blockade in recent history. The United States, basically surrounded Cuba, preventing Russia from being able set up shop and be less than thirty minutes from the homeland, with a stray ICBM . President Kennedy, stepped up to the plate and took full responsibility for the Bay of Pigs debacle, may have been one of the last few times that a politician, stood up and said, hey , “this one is on me”. Again!, readers digest version . The missile crisis was averted and cooler heads prevailed. The Soviets withdrew the arsenal from Cuba and we made concessions and removed some missiles that we had based in Turkey, as an equal lateral move. Let’s Play Quantum Leap again and see , where we are today, some sixty years later. Well on some scale I want to say that pretty much every administration since Kennedy has treated Cuba as a political hot potato. I think on some level that the US has tried to get Cuba to bend to its will , through sanctions, travel restrictions and very messy immigration policies, to say nothing about how hard it had been to get a good Cuban cigar ☺️☺️. I don’t want to make this all about politics, because there is a neighbor to the south of us, with people who have real life challenges each and every day, much like the rest of us, yet somehow different. We know that there is no place, and I mean absolutely no place in the world where communism works, not even China. Most of us think about the fall of communism in the former USSR, but truth be told both Russia and China are actually more propped up by the capitalism part of country than anything else. The governments and the political parties wave the banner of a failed government system and only maintain it through military paralysis. The military is used to keep the people in check if and when they demand a change and freedoms, remember Tiananmens Square. This is also true in Cuba, but on a smaller scale, but the shortages for everyday household supplies and goods is on going. We begin to experience some of this with covid, but can you imagine it for over sixty years? . Many have known this for their entire life, and has just become the way that things are. Many things that we just take for granted such as free speech and the ease of free information, just doesn’t exist there. They have state sponsored and state run media, as in most communist countries, and if you think that propaganda is a thing is a thing of the past, then guess again. This is true in Cuba ,as well as other countries that hold their people hostage. When they report things from outside of the country, such as in the US, they put particular emphasis on the bad, such as the school shootings, which we just had another one of, or they show cops violating someone’s civil rights. It’s almost anything and everything that is negative to demonstrate to them, that their lives aren’t that bad. These countries model for success resembles something like a pyramid scheme, except the only the top peak benefits. This is attested to by people willing to sacrifice their very lives, for a better quality of life. We don’t see it as much as we use to, but people still get on rafts and braves the seas, with rough weather and shark infested waters, in hopes for a brighter tomorrow. I know that the last two decades or so has been a real hot button for us ,when it comes to immigration. I want to correct myself here and say that it has been about illegal immigration and I’m not sure what people don’t understand about illegal, that normally means it’s not permitted….right?. I don’t want to get into all of the ins and outs of that, but I want to share a little bit about from one of my favorite peeps in Cuba. As I said before, I do believe that some of our policies when it comes to Cuba are aimed at punishing Cuba, but it is like so many other things in life, it punishes the people who are in the least position to make changes. I think secretly we know this and are hoping for some kind of a revolt, or possibly another revolution. Our immigration policies are all over the place and the deal with visas and the red tape is just staggering. The ones who head out on rafts are immediately deported and once upon a time they could apply for asylum , but no more, after all that is like being rewarded for bad behavior and it would just encourage others to take the risk. We had a convoluted policy called wet feet/ dry feet, that was implemented under the Clinton administration, that use to allow Cubans who made it to dry land to apply for citizenship the following year and I believe that policy was resend or ended under the Obama administration. I think that Clinton remember that president Nixon, had tried to reach out to China back in the day, to try and get something rolling as far as some kind of normalcy between the two Nations, and you have to remember for these men who sit in the oval office, it’s all about legacy, what will they be remember for, so perhaps Clinton was thinking about Legacy with Cuba, or perhaps to get the people to forget the name Monica Lewinsky☺️☺️. Change in policy calls for a change in tactics. The sea option is off of the table now, so what struggling Cubans are forced to do now is to travel south into Central and South America and work their way up through Mexico. I’m not encouraging this, but I’m sharing what I have learned from my friend in Cuba, and what some family members have felt that they had no other choice, but to make this extremely dangerous journey. I will add that some people or family members have left and never heard from again, no closure, what so ever on their fate. These people sometimes sell everything that they own to pay a coyote, who promises a way through the jungles and wilderness, just to get a glimmer at our southern border. There is just a plethora of horror stories about how this turns out for many, and my friend in Cuba has a twenty something year old daughter that she is trying to discourage from taking the risk. It doesn’t leave much to the immigration to see how people are trafficked here. Almost as common as our mass shooting, we see tractor trailer of people dead in a container from heat exhaustion or near death from dehydration and lack of medical care. And I know that there are hard liners out there, who think, that is what they get for sneaking into the country illegally, but my God, they are human beings we are talking about, not animals, and just like George Floyd didn’t deserve to die the way that he did, these people don’t deserve this either. I don’t have a solution to our illegal immigration problems, but you can’t just chalk it up to price of admission. And here’s another one that surprised me a little bit, many Cubans become the victims of kidnappings. What??, yes, you heard me correctly. When crossing into other countries to reach Mexico, their identity has to be declared or discovered and they are held for ransom. I know?, who would pay a kidnapper their ransom. Well if you have ever been to South Beach or the Miami area, Cuban Americans have done very well for themselves. They own all kinds of business and shops , anything from restaurants, night clubs, limousine services, hotels, you name it and Cubans own it. There influence is undeniable in Southern Florida and if they have family members who have attempted the trek to the border, they could be potential targets for kidnappers. I’ve never been to Cuba, only seen pictures or perhaps seen a movie or two that was shot there, but all indications are that it’s a beautiful island of about eleven million people or so, somewhat of a tropical paradise, so it begs the question, why so many will risk it all , for a better trajectory of life. I believe that there is just something about the human spirit that just yearns for freedom. I know that it is something that we take for granted here and honestly don’t give much thought to, but if you don’t have it , it’s something that you are keenly aware of. So, whether you are a prisoner in a Russian prison and they promise you your freedom if you will go fight against the Ukrainians, or a black person in the south during the Civil War and the same offer was made to you in hopes of winning your liberty, there is just no limits that won’t be challenged to obtain some kind of tranquility and peace of mind . As, I said at the on set we don’t care about what we don’t know and all to many times we don’t care if it doesn’t personally effect us. Fidel Castro is long gone, but the cloud of communism still prevails and hangs over the country like a dark rain storm with hail, in a place that is known for tropical breezes and sunny days. I believe that we need to do something to encourage more freedom and care. Your US passport is valid to go to Cuba, but the red tape for them to come this way is not so free flowing, after all, they get here, they may not return. I’m a bit long as usual, but we need to encourage our representatives to become more involved in getting things where our policies are not hurting the people who have very little to no say as into how the country is run. I scratched the surface here , so now you know and now you can care.
Till Next Time ✌️ Peace!
Sandy The Southerner

Reply
,
Reply All
or
Forward

Send

Share on Facebook

Save

2 thoughts on “We Don’t Know ! What, We Don’t Know !”