At a time and location neither man will acknowledge, Fidel Castro, age eighty-eight but still a political stalwart even in semi-retirement, shakes hands with United States Senator Marco Rubio, who\u2019s half his age. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cMucho gusto,\u201d Fidel says. \u201cI\u2019m proud you\u2019ve done so well in American politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIf you hadn\u2019t forced countless citizens into exile, I\u2019d be in Cuban politics and an opponent of yours. That means, like most of your opponents, I\u2019d be in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYes, that frown and your rhetoric wouldn\u2019t be helpful. But remember, two million poor people in U.S. prisons are really political prisoners.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThey\u2019re criminals and the mentally ill like thousands you sent us in the 1980 Mariel boatlift. People in our prisons aren\u2019t there because they criticized political leaders. Only dictators tremble at criticism. Even though President Obama is a fool for wanting to normalize relations with Cuba, he at least respects my right to publicly disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe simply have a different conception of what\u2019s tolerable to say in public. Perhaps we could be less vigilant if we trusted the United States not to foment trouble in Cuba. Like most of the world, which has normal relations with us, I commend President Obama for discarding a failed policy that\u2019s hurt both our nations for more than half a century.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s our duty to oppose you. Cubans not in prisons with bars face lifetime imprisonment on an island most cannot leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat\u2019s changing, young man, and why Raul and our other leaders want to end the hostility between our two countries. In that regard we agree with the majority of Americans who, in Gallup polls since 1999, have wanted normal relations. Even young Cuban Americans want this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYoung Americans don\u2019t understand your decades of cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThey\u2019ve heard all the stories, true and false, about my career, and I\u2019m not going to try to change anyone\u2019s opinion about our revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat\u2019s wise because you couldn\u2019t impress anyone,\u201d Rubio says. \u201cCubans earn about twenty dollars a month, have trouble getting meat, and have restricted and very slow internet connections which, I\u2019m convinced, you approve of so they\u2019ll have limited knowledge of the vibrant world outside your communist nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYou\u2019re quite a talker.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI\u2019d never subject my constituents \u2013 who have the right to vote me out of office \u2013 to speeches lasting several hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cMy young senator, you\u2019re not nearly as dynamic a speaker as I.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cNo one\u2019s dynamic enough to blather for hours about what an omniscient dictator he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cEst\u00e1 bien. I\u2019ll be brief. We\u2019re not wealthy in material goods but we have more doctors per capita than you or anyone else in the world, and our first rate health care is free. Poor people in your wealthy paradise often die because they can\u2019t afford medical procedures we give away every day. Cubans love Raul and me for what we\u2019ve given them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBut you\u2019ve already conceded \u2013 and a devastating self-condemnation it is \u2013 that Cubans cannot criticize you or your brother or the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe can\u2019t bark as much as you, but Cuban students don\u2019t have to borrow tens of thousands of dollars for a university education. We go to school for free. We work for each other, not the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cCubans toil to keep you in power.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThey work to sustain our free nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYou\u2019re not free.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe\u2019re free to take walks at night without being robbed. Do you walk alone at night, Senator?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cNo, and neither do you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At a time and location neither man will acknowledge, Fidel Castro, age eighty-eight but still a political stalwart even in semi-retirement, shakes hands with United States Senator Marco Rubio, who\u2019s half his age. \u201cMucho gusto,\u201d Fidel says. \u201cI\u2019m proud you\u2019ve done so well in American politics.\u201d \u201cIf you hadn\u2019t forced countless citizens into exile, I\u2019d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,1351,156,155,793,1258,454],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n