Today marked the day when normal relations between the United States and Cuba resumed. It is about time!

The wall came down between the East and the West in 1989. December 17 is the date when another wall, although symbolic has fallen. Normal relations between our two countries has begun.

Perhaps, some old timers who are still angry about Fidel Castro will not be happy about the rapprochement. Some may very well still see red and perhaps they would have us still stoke the embers of our past and continue with what was our prior policy. Time marches on and what has happened today is progress, and a necessary development.

For the Cuban people it can only be good as the country appears pretty much as it did in the 50’s. It might appear quaint but Cuba has been caught in a situation where it is still in that time frame, but now old and worn down. It is much like the contrast between East and West Berlin, where the one side was unchanged from the war and the West was all new and rebuilt. For those with relatives in the states, normal contact will be much easier. Greater economic prosperity for the Cuban people is more likely as its isolation from the west will be greatly reduced.

The men who were part of the revolution have grown old and their revolutionary fervor has withered and grown old as well.

Hopefully the old mistrust of each other has grown old as well. The future is now and let bygones be bygones. The past is dead and the revolutionary leaders of Cuba are soon to be dead as well. It is a good thing that Raul Castro has worked with America to forge a new future of relations between our two country’s. Viva!!!!