Barack Obama and Cuba

Ok - I was wavering on who I should support in the Democrat race for President in 2008. I got my answer this morning. A subject and country that is very close to my heart is Cuba. You all know I had the wonderful blessing of being in Cuba in May of 2004 for a mission immersion program with my seminary. I got to work with the best people. I got to see the children. I got to feel their love. I preached to them and the preached to me. I saw what it meant to be thankful for all the blessings that we have been given, even when they are given in the worst conditions.

I was there when our current administration put the tighter restrictions on travel to Cuba for families and tighter restrictions on sending money and medicine to loved ones. I saw first hand the struggles that take place because of the egotistical and controlling nature of our government who wants to control everything that does not agree with them.

I have never met a more loving and caring group of people. They treated us like royalty, despite where we were from. They knew it was not our fault for the so called US "leadership". We talked to a professor at the Evangelisto de teological de seminario who said it best, "we have two arrogant old men, who are set in their ways, who are trying to protect their own, that they are not willing to budge or provide a compromise to make things better."

MIAMI - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is leaping into the long-running Cuba debate by calling for the United States to ease restrictions for Cuban-Americans who want to visit the island or send money home.

Here is the rest of the article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20369459/

The embargo has not worked in 45 years. Why do people think that it is going to change now? Why do people think it will make a difference to put more restrictions? It is only hurting the people that we are trying to save. It is also hurting people in our own country. And if we want to get selfish, the travel restrictions on our own American people keep us from being a "land of the free" because we DON'T have complete freedom if we are restricted from we we can travel. So how is that for being selfish?

The embargo needs to be lifted completely. At least what Obama sees is that we need to make a change and start supporting the people and not our egos. This can be a start.