According to the NYT-- LINK to the story below: "[The President] Thursday said that he was terminating the 22-year-old policy that has allowed Cubans who arrived on United States soil without visas to remain in the country and gain legal residency, an unexpected move long sought by the Cuban government."
“Effective immediately, Cuban nationals who attempt to enter the United States illegally and do not qualify for humanitarian relief will be subject to removal, consistent with U.S. law and enforcement priorities,” By taking this step, we are treating Cuban migrants the same way we treat migrants from other countries.”
"The move places a finishing touch on Mr. Obama’s efforts as president to end a half-century of hostility between the United States and Cuba and to establish normalized relations and diplomatic ties with a government American presidents have long sought to isolate and punish."
MY COMMENT
I am not Christian BUT I love the humane side of the New Testament and also love the Beatitudes alleged to have been said by Christ. Again, born Jewish and matured into a significant agnostic my thoughts on this are NOT about religious dogma but they are about a standard I have set for myself many years ago. The Golden Rule is something I strive to live by as is Rabbi Hillel's teaching “That which is hateful unto you do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole of the Torah, The rest is commentary." Those two religious sages for me cement my humane ideological bent. I run into difficulty when my belief runs up against, on this issue, the pitfalls of reality.
Can the US accept all those carte blanch who need to escape national brutality or the forces of nature? Half the world would want to come to our shores and what nation could support those millions who are desperately in need of help. I want to help everyone who needs it but to grant that just to Cubans fleeing a miserable dictatorship if nothing else is unfair to those millions in, for example, Haiti who are devastated by grinding poverty, natural disasters and dying from medical neglect.
This is, of course, for Obama a political decision relaxing decades of US alienation toward the Cuban government which I support. I try always to walk in another's shoes to see how they fit but if the shoes do not fit I am sometimes prohibited by reality to change them. Cuba is changing. Life, I hope, for Cubans will improve in their own nation!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/world/americas/cuba-obama-wet-foot-dry-foot-policy.html?emc=edit_na_20170112&nlid=75028030&ref=headline&_r=0
No comments:
Post a Comment