With U.S.-Cuba Relations it is Old Guard vs. New Guard

CUBA- U.S. RELATIONS: It’s Old Guard versus Youth
By: Derek Varsalona

Opening relations between the United States and Cuba is not even a week old and yet it is burning with controversy. We are beginning to see the stages of a generational shift on the matter. The elders that have lived under the Castro regime denounce the horrors which they were placed under. They feel slighted by President Barack Obama for even opening relations in terms of a phone call. The younger generation feel that this could be a breakthrough and the start of a new era in United States-Cuba Relations.

The older generations, mainly seniors feel that President Obama has let them down after they were so hopeful for this President. Currently there are protest in the city of Miami and those protestors are called President Barack Obama a traitor to the American Cause. But I must ask: What is President Obama’s cause and is his cause much different then our American cause? I would say yes. The American cause is a cause that burns with freedom. President Obama’s cause is one of more government regulation and with more government regulation comes more government control. In the protestors eyes this equals Communism and it is the exact life that they fled in Cuba many years ago. Under the Obama Administration the government has greater control of our health care, many have been kicked off their current plans because those plans did not conform to government regulations.

Many youth and now elders feel a sense of   betrayal by the Obama Administration. Health premiums under the Affordable Care Act have go up due to the law itself when Obama claimed it would go down. We have federal funding of abortion under the health care law while the Stupak Amendment and President Obama’s Executive Order prevented such a policy from being enacted. We still have no clue as to what happened the night of September 11, 2012 in Benghazi when the U.S. Consulate was attacked and Ambassador Christopher Stevens was assassinated.

The main concern of the elders is that the atrocities under the Castro regime has not changed and will not change in the near future even with better relations between the United States and Cuba. Cuba still does not let freedom of speech, they still jail people who oppose the government.

I am hopeful for a new day in U.S.-Cuban relations. But the elders do have strong concerns that need to be taken seriously.

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Older Generation Cuban-American feeling betrayed by Obama

Photo Credit:

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Derek Varsalona

I have a mild Case of Cerebral Palsy and am very politically active

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