What I've learned mainly from watching Cuba closely for the last twenty years is that foreign currency continues to enable one of the most brutal dictators of our time. I've learned that from the tens of thousands of Cubans I've picked up in the Straits of Florida while they were fleeing that "paradise" and I've learned that by following the sad sagas of people like Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodríguez. A man willing to stand up to the thuggish Castro who has been imprisoned for his temerity.

The miracle of the Cuban health care system has been pretty thoroughly debunked; it results in large part from questionable statistical practices (e.g. deflating infant mortality rates by not counting as live births those infants who die in their first seven days) and party propoganda.

Look, I know this isn't the place for this and I should not have started it here. That said, I've seen first hand the misery and opression and death brought on Cubans by Castro and feel a moral obligation to speak up for them whenever I can. I hope Matt and others will at least consider that their and their countries' support for the Cuban people may actually be prolonging Castro's reign.