Andrew's Tiki Lounge

An American Tragedy

The death of Marvin Schur, a 93-year-old World War II veteran who froze to death inside of his own home in Bay City, Michigan, exemplifies everything that I find troubling about the United States.

Schur owed around $1,000 in unpaid electrical bills, so the electric company placed a "limiter" device on his electrical supply that ended up completely shutting off his power. He died of hypothermia. When his body was found, the inside of his home was below freezing. There was ice on the inside of his windows. 

According to Oakland County's deputy chief medical examiner, Schur died a "slow, painful death." "Hypothermia shuts the whole system down, slowly," he said. "It's not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they're burning."

Apparently, in a delirious state, Schur clipped cash to his electric bill at the kitchen table. That was one of his last acts before he went to sleep for the last time in his life. 

He was found frozen to death by neighbors on January 17. 

Many times on this Blog, I try to emphasize the noble side of America. On many occasions, I've Blogged about good people -- men, women and even youths -- from all walks of life who have struggled to push the country to live up to its highest ideals.  

But sometimes I have to Blog about the dark side of America. And believe me, folks, it doesn't get a whole lot darker than this.

Here is a man who sacrificed for his nation in its hour of need, when the country was threatened by the forces of fascism and Japanese militarism.

And how was Marvin Schur rewarded? His power was shut off when he was overdue on his payment. 

There isn't really anything else that anyone can add to enhance the disgracefulness of this story. There's no point in saying, "This is a mockery of everything America ought to stand for..." or "This is a horrific example of dog-eat-dog Social Darwinism gone hideously awry..." True, it's those all of those things, and much, much worse.

But this story needs no additional commentary, other than the tale itself. 

This is the side of America I absolutely hate. Hate, in fact, isn't a strong enough word for it. To think: A government that hands $700 billion to greedy Wall Street execs can't even take care of a World War II veteran, who made a far greater sacrifice than any of those wealthy beneficiaries of socialism for the rich. 

Would that we could say the Marvin Schurs of this world are unique. But the streets of America are full of destitute veterans, turned out into the cold by a sick society that cannot -- will not -- take care of its own. 

There is one ray of hope in this tragedy. Two Michigan legislators are calling for a ban on utility shutoffs in the dead of winter. The two legislators -- State Rep. Jeff Mayes and State Sen. Jim Barcia -- are both from Marvin Schur's hometown of Bay City. Both men are Democrats. 

Such a ban is long overdue. Its passage in the state legislature would be the one tiny fragment of redemption in a story that is both tragic and yet at the same time, symbolic of the very most reprehensible qualities of contemporary American society. 

(Sources: The Detroit News, The Associated Press)

From the Nixon Files: Jew Spies vs. Negro Spies

In case you were wondering the difference between Jewish Spies and Negro -- er, uh, African American Spies, President Richard Nixon sets the record straight and enlightens us on the matter in this over-the-top clip from the Nixon Tapes, from July 5, 1971. Enjoy!

TRANSCRIPT

President Nixon: All of the Jewish families are close, but there’s this strange malignancy now that seems to creep among them. I don’t know, the radicalism. I can imagine how the fact that [Daniel] Ellsberg is in this must really tear a fellow like [National Security Adviser] Henry [A. Kissinger] to pieces, or [Consultant Leonard] Garment, you know. Just like the Rosenbergs and all that. That just has to kill him. And you feel horrible about it.

Ronald L. Ziegler: Couldn’t be guy by name of Snyder.

President Nixon: There ain’t none.

H.R. “Bob” Haldeman: [chuckling] It would’ve been a Rosenstein that changed his name.

Ziegler: [Laughs.] It is. Right. It’s always an Ellsberg or [unclear—overlapping voices].

President Nixon: They’re all Jews. Every one’s a Jew. [Former Director of Policy Planning and Arms Control for International Security Affairs Leslie H.] Gelb’s a Jew. [former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Morton H.] Halperin’s a Jew. But there are bad — [Alger] Hiss was not a Jew. So that proves something. Very interesting thing. So few of those who engage in espionage are Negroes. Very lucky that way. [Unclear] As a matter of fact, very few of them become Communists. If they do, they either, like, they get into Angela Davis, they’re more of an activist type, and they throw bombs and this and that. But the Negroes, have you ever noticed? There are damn few Negro spies.

Haldeman: They’re not intellectual enough. Not smart enough.

President Nixon: It may be.

Haldeman: They’re not smart enough to be spies, they’re not intellectual enough—

President Nixon: The Jews are born spies. You notice how many of them are? They’re just in it up to their necks.

Haldeman: Well, got a basic devious abil—deviousness, that—

President Nixon: Well, also, an arrogance, an arrogance that says — that’s what makes a spy. He puts himself above the law.

 Ziegler: Yeah.

President Nixon: Other than spies for the pay. I’m talking about the spies that do it because of idealism.

Not quite one week in the White House and...

President Obama (Lord, that has a nice ring to it!) has been in office less than a week and let's take a quick tally of a few of his accomplishments.

1. From the Washington Post: "President Obama yesterday lifted a ban on U.S. funding for international health groups that perform abortions, promote legalizing the procedure or provide counseling about terminating pregnancies."

2. He has issued an order to close down the Guantanamo Bay dungeon. (Source)

3. He is already planning a far-reaching $825 billion economic stimulus plan. (Source) 

4. He is already taking steps to strengthen regulations on automobile emissions and fuel efficiency. (Source) 

5. Key Republicans are already dissing him, which just goes to show that there is zero honeymoon for the GOP. If the top dogs in the GOP are going after him, how bad can the guy be? (Source)

6. Another Washington Post article points out that Obama is "imposing new ethics rules, and taking the first steps toward providing more transparency in government."

7. The same article cited in #6 also points out that Obama is "meeting with military leaders to begin planning the drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq" and "signing executive orders eliminating many of the tools Bush had used in the battle against terrorism."

8. Obama has already started the difficult and time-consuming process of enacting tougher regulations over the nation's troubled financial sector, according to Reuters, "including stricter federal rules for hedge funds, credit rating agencies and mortgage brokers." 

9. As part of his efforts to promote transparency and openness in government, Obama is strengthening the Freedom of Information Act, which was severely weakened under eight years of Old Dubya. Such a move will make government documents and files easier to obtain for ordinary Americans. (Source)

10. Obama has imposed pay freezes on White House aides. Could you imagine Dubya doing something like that? Actually, could you -- in your wildest dreams -- imagine George W. Bush doing a single thing on this list??? (Source) 

All that in one week! To the skeptics who doubted Obama: Step aside. The tide of history is turning. What a great week it has been. 

Cult of Personality?

Who wasn't tuned in to the inauguration of Barack Obama yesterday? Whether you were lucky enough to be in Washington, D.C. at the time, or one of the millions -- maybe ultimately billions -- of people around the world watching it on television from afar, it was a remarkable transfer of power. 

And it was clear that the nation's capital was transformed into one massive party. All of those millions of people in the mall, cheering with robust enthusiasm, was quite a scene to behold.

I spoke at an inauguration event at the University of Waterloo where over 200 people were gathered, watching the event on big screen televisions, listening on a huge sound system. They cheered for Obama like he was their president. It was a very meaningful moment. 

A lot of skeptics used the term "Cult of Personality" in reference to Obama at the time of the inauguration (see here, here, here, here and here). Of course, many of the wary voices belong to conservatives who loathe Obama and everything he stands for. 

But even some progressive voices sounded skeptical about the Obama craze. As California attorney John Mortimer noted on the liberal-left OpEdNews: "Barack Obama, whom George W. Bush called "the pope," is America's new deity in the cult-of-personality."

It is hard to dispute the fact that there's an Obama Cult of Personality. People from far and wide love this man (if you've read any other Blog posts here, you'll see I'm one of the Obama-loving masses). In other posts, I've called him "our Lincoln" and "a great man" and lots of other lofty things. So I'm as guilty of buying into the Cult as the next person.

The question becomes: Is the Cult of of Personality a healthy thing? There's nothing wrong with having heroes and heroines. In our "been-there-done-that" age, charismatic figures such as Obama help guide us through the rocky shoals of contemporary affairs. 

And Obama helped empower ordinary people. He convinced them that they could make change and alter the course of history. Obama's victory was not a passive form of hero worship. It was, in a very real sense, one of the greatest grassroots movements in American history. 

Conservatives who lament the current Cult of Personality surrounding Obama should explore their own Ronald Reagan fixation. Some of you may recall when the acid-tongued commentator Bill Maher said, "And they have something very gay, excuse me, going on with Ronald Reagan. I mean, they love Ronald Reagan in a way that’s just gay. I’m sorry. But, I think they want to put him on a stamp so that they can lick his backside." 

Needless to say, that comment didn't go over so well in GOP circles. But it does go to show that Obama's right-wing critics often operate with double standards. 

Is there a drawback to the Obama Cult of Personality? Sure there is. Over the last few days, we've heard the name Martin Luther King, Jr. mentioned a great deal. It was MLK Day the day before Inauguration Day. Without question, MLK has become the center of a Cult of Personality. And the danger is that people are so busy turning him into a saint that they don't really explore his ideas or attempt to understand his worldview.

Toward the end of his life, King began moving in the same direction that Malcolm X was moving in before he was assassinated in 1965. Both men spoke frequently of the need for a revolution -- both in the larger society and in personal human values. What a sad moment when the assassin's bullet ended their lives. The MLK Cult of Personality often obscures just how radical and far-reaching his critique of capitalism actually was. 

Yesterday belonged to Obama. People were thrilled about the changing of the guard. Across America, and around the world, people rejoiced. Some laughed, others danced, untold numbers cheered. Eight gloomy years came to an end, many observers insisted, with a new age about to begin.

There's nothing wrong with the Cult of Personality surrounding Obama. The real culprit, in any cult of personality -- no matter where it exists in the world or when it surfaces in history -- is not the love of a particular leader. The real danger is intellectual laziness on the part of people who either incapable or unwilling of looking beyond rhetoric and style. 

A lack of critical thinking is not new to the American political scene. Earlier generations of followers practically worshipped Ronald Reagan when he was president in the 1980s, John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s, FDR in the 1930s and Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s. There will always be a certain number of them. Better they follow Obama to what will hopefully prove to be a new and more fruitful way of doing politics, rather than Old Dubya's route -- straight off the cliff to nowhere.                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Congratulations, America! You finally have the president you deserve...

What a great day for America. I'm so proud of my country. 

Here is an interesting article on the inauguration from Reuters:

FACTBOX: Obama's inauguration by the numbers

(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's historic inauguration on Tuesday means crunching a lot of numbers. Here is a snapshot of some of them:
* 5,000: The number of portable toilets to be distributed on the National Mall.
* 10,000: The number of buses that city transportation and Secret Service officials expect to ferry people to Washington. Placed end to end, the buses would stretch 85 miles.
* 240,000: That is how many tickets have been distributed, free of charge, for the swearing-in ceremony on Capitol Hill.
* 32: The chilly daily high temperature, in degrees Fahrenheit, forecast for Tuesday. That is zero degrees Celsius.
* 55: The number of previous presidential inaugurations.
* 1 million: The number of people expected to view the inauguration from the National Mall. Hundreds of thousands more will pack Pennsylvania Avenue to watch the inaugural parade. The record was set during the 1965 inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson, when 1.2 million people attended.
* $8,249: The price of a seat at the swearing-in ceremony being advertised by one online ticket broker.
* 850: Washington's Metro rail service says it will have that many rail cars, capable of carrying 120,000 people every hour, operating between 4 a.m. and 9 p.m. on the day.
* 8,000: Some 4,000 city police officers will be deployed along with 4,000 from 96 other law enforcement agencies across the country.
* 32,000: The total number of military personnel who will be on duty or on standby for the inauguration.
* 900: The number of hotel rooms still available in the city.
(Reporting by Ross Colvin; Editing by Xavier Briand)

A grand moment for America

Dear Blog Pals,

Below is my column from The Waterloo Region Record on Barack Obama's historic inauguration. I hope you enjoy it!

AH

A new era dawns

Americans prepare to turn the page on eight years of mean-minded politics

January 17, 2009

ANDREW HUNT

The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States - happening this Tuesday - is a grand moment. A nation of 300 million waits for a new commander in chief. And when the big day arrives, the whole world will be watching.

What other presidential inauguration has been kicked off by a concert featuring the likes of Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Beyoncé?

At elementary schools across the nation, daily lessons will temporarily be put on hold so children can watch the inauguration on televisions. As the principal of a school in Cincinnati put it: "We don't want to see it on a rerun. We want to be witnesses to the historical moment."

Hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts in and around the nation's capital are booked solid. Vendors selling all things Obama - T-shirts, buttons, flags, commemorative coins, even pet clothes - are setting up tables near the inauguration site as you read this.

Current guesstimates in Washington place the anticipated turnout at about 1.5 million, a gigantic leap from the 100,000 who came to the city to witness George W. Bush's second inaugural in 2005. The price tag of the inauguration could surpass $150 million, making it the most expensive in American history.

There will be bridge closures and traffic jams. There are too many galas and balls across the city to count. And an unprecedented number of Canadians will be spilling over the border to be there. Expect a significant presence of Kenyans, too, because Obama's father hailed from the East African nation.

Washington's 38-year old mayor, Adrian Fenty, recently told the New York Times: "We're as prepared as humanly possible. You take nothing for granted. There's a lot of logistics. There's no way to come up with a real, exact number of how many people will come. That's really the issue."

The global wave of Obamamania is not difficult to understand.

America is still reeling from eight years of the younger Bush. And a dark time it was. Between 2001 and 2008, politics in America became hard-edged. Torture was not only accepted, it was celebrated in the hallowed halls of power. The very words Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib brought to mind dungeons where prisoners languished for years without due process.

War profiteering skyrocketed, unregulated capitalism ran amok, Halliburton took kickbacks from Kuwaiti companies, and $9 billion in Iraqi reconstruction funds went "missing."

The news footage of post-hurricane Katrina New Orleans, battered and devastated and, worse, suffering from extreme federal neglect, still haunts the nation. Scenes of African Americans living in the Louisiana Superdome or holding up homemade signs pleading for help, shocked television viewers across the country and showed that the Bush administration was completely unprepared to confront the crisis.

But the troubling federal response to hurricane Katrina - or lack of a response - was also due to the extreme disregard for the needs of ordinary Americans that has gripped Washington policy-making like a vise these past eight years.

Grim old men with nasty dispositions -- the Donald Rumsfelds, the Dick Cheneys, the John Ashcrofts -- exerted enormous influence in federal politics. When Condoleezza Rice is the moderate of the bunch, you know you're in trouble. To simply say their world view was "reactionary" misses the deeper flaw: At their very core, the people in the Bush administration seemed to loathe humanity.

Rightly or wrongly, people judge America by its president. And in Bush, Americans had a commander in chief who was something worse than vacuous: He was an extremist whose destructive presidency took an even more reckless turn following the catastrophic events of Sept. 11, 2001.

When people talk about Obama inheriting a series of messes, the clear implication is that his predecessor's time in the White House was an unqualified disaster. There are Bush apologists who point to the "good" things he did as president, such as sending humanitarian aid to Africa to help combat malaria and AIDS.

In his farewell address to America on Thursday night, Bush emphasized what he regarded as his crowning achievement: Preventing another 9/11 terrorist attack during his two terms in office. "America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil," he said.

Bush leaves the White House with record low approval ratings, which are close to those of Harry Truman when he walked out of the White House in January 1953. But while history has rehabilitated Truman, it is difficult to see how it could possibly do the same for Bush.

Now, as the nation's capital braces itself for the epic inauguration of Obama, the United States will go from having one of its most reviled presidents to one of its most beloved. Crossing the threshold of the swearing-in ceremony will be a profound moment for the country.

It is poignant to read stories about ordinary people from all walks of life -- black and white, young and old, men and women, affluent and struggling -- finding ways to make the pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. to witness history. And those who cannot make the journey will be viewing the inauguration on television in record numbers.

At the Shiloh West African Methodist Episcopal Church in West Brighton, New York, big-screen televisions will be wheeled in and the church doors will open early. Big crowds are expected. This scene will repeat itself in a thousand different communities, in a hundred different towns, where people look to the new president as a source of inspiration.

But Obama is not a miracle worker. The crises he is about to confront -- both foreign and domestic -- did not emerge overnight, and it will take a lot of work and time, not just in the White House, but in all corners of the nation, to heal America. When the lofty speeches are over and the street sweepers are done cleaning up the confetti in Washington, D.C., the real struggle to restore the promise of America begins in earnest.

Andrew Hunt is the chair of the department of history at the University of Waterloo. He grew up in the United States, and holds dual citizenship.

Eventful times...

I haven't blogged much lately. Not as much as I'd like to, anyway. The start of a new term is always a busy time for an academic and it's no exception for me. 

We're experiencing the same bitter "cold snap" up here in Canada that is hitting much of the United States so hard right now. The massive Arctic front has brought record low temperatures to a vast swath of North America. Brian Nelson of International Falls, Minnesota, put it best when he told ABC News: "It's been many, many, many years since I've seen a winter this harsh." I might throw in an extra "many." 

I've been working on a long article for the Waterloo Region Record on President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20. I'll post it here after it runs in the Record. Briefly, I'll summarize what I'm going to say in the article: In my lifetime, I haven't seen an inauguration that has stirred this much excitement or caused such a buzz. I imagine the last inauguration this big was when John F. Kennedy was sworn in. But not even Kennedy had the same set of expectations placed on him as Obama. 

The crises -- both foreign and domestic -- that Obama is about to confront have been years in the making. And he is not going to be able to fix them overnight. I worry that my south-of-the-border compatriots are so into "quick fix" solutions -- they want to see the big mess that George W. Bush left the country taken care of overnight -- that they won't give Obama the time he needs to fix the problems. And some of the ills seem almost beyond repair. 

I'll be speaking at an event at the University of Waterloo celebrating Obama's inauguration. It will be a great moment in history. 

And the guy gets a tribute concert from the likes of Bono, Springsteen and Beyonce??? Oy! "Obama Inauguration Expected to Be Bigger than Super Bowl," said the British Telegraph. 

These are eventful times. The crisis in Gaza is as relentless as it is heartbreaking. This Blogger has always been sympathetic toward Israel and believes the nation has every right to defend itself. In principle, I continue to adhere to that belief. But there's self-defense and there's madness, and Gaza is fast falling into the latter category. George Bisharat, professor at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, wrote a compelling column on crisis in the Wall Street Journal. On the opposite side of the issue, Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for The Atlantic, wrote a thought-provoking column for the New York Times titled "Why Israel Can't Make Peace With Hamas." If you get a chance, read both pieces. Read them with an open mind. What's happening in Gaza is horrific, but it's also troubling that the debate has become so intensely polarized and full of rage on both sides. What's needed to reduce the hostilities is a more nuanced view of the crisis. A sense of urgency is a must -- this blood assault must come to a halt. But a lasting peace will not come from polarized extremes. 

Closer to home, Barack Obama categorized Al-Qaeda as America's "number one threat." He said this in response to Osama Bin Laden's recently released 22-minute audio statement encouraging jihad against Israel. But the good news is that Obama has jettisoned Dubya's "dead-or-alive" attitude toward Bin Laden. As Obama put it: "I think that we have to so weaken his infrastructure that, whether he is technically alive or not, he is so pinned down that he cannot function." This is an encouraging change from Dubya's rigid position, which really achieved nothing over the course of eight years. Bin Laden remains in command of Al-Qaeda even as Dubya rides into the sunset. (The always brilliant Peter Bergen offers a useful analysis of the recent Al-Qaeda tapes at CNN.com). 

So Obama is about to take office at a very eventful moment. The economic crisis, political scandals, two wars overseas, the crisis in Gaza, world tensions festering... 

To assume leadership at this time, inheriting Dubya's messes, is an act of heroism. To offer vision and a new direction, as he is doing now, is nothing short of a miracle. Give him support, give him time.

Stay healthy, Blog Pals...

Andrew

News of the last few days: Good, bad & ugly...

The Good: President-elect Barack Obama has nominated former Congressman and White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta (right) to head the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Panetta is a genuinely decent man who will bring something to the CIA that it has lacked for a long time: accountability. Panetta has long been an unwavering voice of fairness and justice. As author and ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern writes: "As for integrity, this is nothing new for Leon Panetta. As head of President Richard Nixon's Office of Civil Rights, he insisted on enforcing laws to protect minorities even under pressure from Nixon to get in line with the Republican "southern strategy" of neglecting civil rights. Rather than buckle to these demands, Panetta resigned and later became a Democrat." The nomination of Panetta to head the CIA is yet another sign that change -- genuine change -- is in the air. 

The Bad: In December, the U.S. jobless rate rose to 7.2 percent. During that time, more than half a million jobs were eliminated. The "experts" still aren't using the dreaded "D-word" ("depression"), but you hear the "R-word" -- recession -- creeping into the discussion an awful lot lately. As Lawrence Mishel, head of the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, put it: "We're seeing a complete unraveling of the labor market and are on track for getting beyond 10 percent unemployment." Every day, the news gets grimmer -- with more stories of Stock Market turbulence, the imploding automobile industry and the efforts of some members of Congress to seek accountability in the massive bailout. We can only hope that the frightening downward slide slows or stops under America's new president. 

(Left: The recession house of cards -- including kids, home, credit cards, job, boss, etc.... it about says it all, doesn't it?)

The Ugly: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is starting to sound a lot like Old Tricky Dick Nixon in this interview (below), where she goes after the media -- everybody from Katie Couric to Tina Fey to Caroline Kennedy. The interview is part of a documentary made by conservative talk radio host John Ziegler. Have a look at the interview. Oddly enough, I find myself often sympathizing with Palin. She was treated in a shoddy fashion by most media outlets. She went from being the toast of the GOP to America's national buffoon, thanks to Fey and others who lampooned her so mercilessly. But just as it would've been a mistake to write off Nixon in when he lost the 1960 presidential race or the California gubernatorial race in 1962, it's also an error to dismiss Palin today. She is going to mature. She is going to get better at what she does. And her message is going to be embraced by growing numbers of social conservatives. Expect Democrats to get complacent, expect Republicans to make a comeback. It has happened in the past. It will happen again. And when it does, the leaderless GOP will be looking to Palin to restore their party. And next time, she isn't going to be the laughingstock of Saturday Night Live and the liberals over at the Daily Kos blog. 

Anyway, have a look at the video (below) of Palin. See what you think. Is she right? Or wrong?

Franken Watch: Finally! Maybe... Hopefully? (Could it be??? please, oh please...)

Well, it looks like Democrat, humorist, Saturday Night Live veteran and political newcomer Al Franken (right) might be the winner of the extremely close and highly contentious U.S. Senate race in Minnesota.

Might be. Those are the key words.

As Franken's attorney, Marc Elias, put it: "Minnesotans have waited a long time for a winner to be declared in this race, and today, with the last attempt to halt the counting process now having failed, Al Franken will be declared the winner."

Republican incumbent Norm Coleman isn't conceding victory or telephoning Franken with best wishes just yet, though. Coleman has another week to challenge Franken's 225-vote victory. And you can bet his army of lawyers is on top of it, gearing up for a legal showdown that could take weeks. Maybe months. 

Liberals (like yours truly) have been watching this race carefully. Two months after the November election, this battle promises to continue, maybe even into March or April. Who knows? 

If Franken does win, the Right will have a punching bag -- a living, breathing target -- in the Senate. Social conservatives loathe Franken and his edgy, irreverent humor.

Franken himself may find that it's easy to sit on the sidelines laughing at the foibles of others. But it's an entirely different thing to step up to the plate, show real leadership and help guide the American people in a new direction. 

When you consider that approximately 2.4 million votes were cast in the Franken/Coleman race, then you realize that 225 votes isn't much. That number could possibly even change in a recount. 

But growing evidence is now pointing to an imminent Franken victory. Getting to the United States Senate has been a long, hard-fought battle for Franken. Now that he's about there, he'll most likely find that he has only taken the first step. A much more difficult -- and harrowing -- challenge will be to see whether a voice of true liberalism stands a chance of actually being heard in the Senate. 

Getting rid of a Cold War Dinosaur...

With U.S. president-elect Barack Obama soon to be inaugurated, hopes are rising that the U.S.-Cuban relations might finally improve after fifty years of being in Cold War Deep Freeze. Cuban president Raul Castro (right) has expressed a desire to see Obama change "the overall hostile U.S. policy" toward Cuba. 

Now the communist island, a mere 90 miles away from Florida, is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Not everybody is in a celebratory mood, however. There are still many aging Cuban exiles in Miami and other parts of the Florida who maintain strong feelings about the Cuban Revolution. As Emilio San Pedro, son of a Cuban exile, reflected recently in an excellent column on the BBC's Website:

My life was dominated by Cuba and my father's nemesis: Fidel Castro. He and his friends would spend days on end organising protests and other actions calling for the fall of communism in Cuba. I can remember watching my father putting the final touches to the homemade layout of the political newspaper he edited, El Nacionalista. I guess you could say he was the old-school version of a modern-day activist blogger. 

For every anti-Castro exile that settled in Florida, there were many Cubans who remained in the country and recent celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution in Havana were huge. Raul sounded like older brother Fidel when he said, "The enemy will never cease to be aggressive, treacherous and dominant..." He also told Communist Party members they "should never distance themselves from our workers, our farmers and the people at large."

If there is any hope for Democracy in Cuba -- real, meaningful democracy (not the fraudulent pseudo-democracy imposed on so many Latin American countries in the past by Washington) -- then Obama must engage in a meaningful dialogue with Raul Castro. 

Time to end the U.S. embargo against Cuba.

Time to open up free travel between the United States and Cuba. 

Time to jettison an outdated, outmoded Cold War policy that has prolonged the poor relations between Washington and Havana.

Look at what happened to Vietnam after the Washington and Hanoi normalized relations in 1995. Vietnam entered the global economy with a vengeance and is now one of the most economically successful nations in Asia, despite the fact that it suffered more than 30 years of steady warfare and the most intense aerial bombing in modern history. 

Cuba may be suffering poverty and stagnation under Castro, but its suffering cannot be compared to the far worse fate of the Vietnamese people. The thawing of the Cold War tensions between the United States and Vietnam offers some clues about what needs to happen with Cuba. Like Vietnam, improved relations between Washington and Havana would be a win-win for all parties involved in Cuba: Cuban politics would be more likely to democratize; the Cuban economy would benefit from being more plugged into the global economy. Cuban exiles would be able to return to their beloved homeland; American tourists would bring a much-needed infusion of tourist cash into Cuba; and one of the last vestiges of a tragic Cold War mindset would finally come to an end. 

Obama is going to face many crises when he enters the White House. By contrast, the solution to improving U.S.-Cuban relations seems like a no-brainer. 

(Sources: Voice of America; The Washington Post; The Miami Herald)