Trib editorial on Cuba essentially calls for end to 61 year old embargo

The Trib’s editorial ‘How Joe Biden and Illinois deal with post-Castro Cuba spent 923 words saying nothing of value till the last sentence: “…sometimes the best way for America to help Cuba is to get out of the way as much as possible and help Cubans help themselves.”

But even that was inadequate to describe the legally and morally right action to aid Cubans: End America’s 61 yearlong crushing economic embargo today.

Maintaining the embargo, condemned for decades by the UN and only supported by the U.S. and Israel, only serves a petty political agenda. Neither party today is willing to follow Obama’s 2013 détente with Cuba which expanded trade and tourism; indeed, even restoring diplomatic relations. Both are petrified about possibly losing Florida’s 29 electoral votes. That is reprehensible.

Ending the embargo will help boost the U.S. economy, including that of Illinois. More importantly it will uplift the Cuban people America has been grinding into the depths of poverty and despair for seven decades.